Putting Yourself Aside

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Philippians 2:1-11. As far as I am concerned, it is one of the most majestic passages in the New Testament. Theologically it is a great hymn of praise for the work of Christ, a profound glimpse into the mystery of the incarnation, of God taking on flesh in the person of His Son, of the way God became Immanuel, God with us. A wordy sentence, yes, but how do you describe what all of this means in just a few words!

Of course, the passage has a practical purpose – it is part of Paul’s plea to the Philippians to maintain unity, to strive for a greater love for each other, and to have the shared purpose of exalting Christ. It is a call to follow the pattern of Jesus by putting others before ourselves, being a servant, setting aside self-interest. This is where this tremendous passage nails me.

I read this passage as the text for a deacon ordination service in the church I pastor this past Sunday. It is a great passage for service, calling us to have the same attitude which was also in Christ Jesus – to take upon ourselves, as one version puts it, the mind of Christ.

But I have a problem with that.

It’s not that I think the idea is wrong; on the contrary, it is so right. If we are truly Christ-followers, then of course we will seek to pattern our lives after Jesus.

But I find that easier said than done.

C. S. Lewis highlights the struggle I have – is it yours as well? He writes:

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through;
I want God, you, all my friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin;
I talk of love – a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek –
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

That is how Lewis puts it with his lofty prose – Don Miller in his book Blue Like Jazz puts it more crassly, and more to the point – “Six billion people live in the world, and I can only muster thoughts for one. Me.”

I don’t like that fact about myself, and I tend to believe I am not alone. We can talk a good game, speak of things like love and service and putting others first – but frankly, that doesn’t happen easily. That is why I keep coming back to Philippians 2. Eugene Peterson puts it in the same frank way Miller does in The Message – “If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made a difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care – then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”

I keep coming back to these words because I must. Vain conceit and selfish ambition are just natural for me – isn’t it for you as well? And so day by day we keep coming back to the admonition to put on the mind of Christ, and we keep coming back to the example of Jesus and the attitude displayed by His great act of self-emptying. We come back with the prayer, “Lord, make me more like you.”

It’s a cinch I can’t pull it off on my own.

Worship Good And Bad

Well, I decided to take up my own challenge and spend a year with Jesus. A chapter a day out of a Gospel will take me through all four Gospels four times in 356 days. I’ve printed the text out with a wide margin for notes and thoughts and a chronicle of my journey. I don’t intent to blog it here, but there will probably be times when something strikes me.

Like today.

Matthew chapter two is a chapter on worship good and bad. It is a familiar passage, one we hear during the Christmas season, our embellished story of three Wise Men from the Far East bringing their costly and symbolic gifts to the baby Jesus. You’ve heard the sermons – I won’t preach one here.

No, what caught my attention was the frequent reference to worship. The Magi come before Herod in their search and indicate they have come to worship this one who has been born King of the Jews. Herod is disturbed, but he uses worship language as well – “As soon as you find him, report to me, so I too may go and worship him.” Sure Herod – we know worship is the farthest thing from your mind!

When the Magi finally reach their destination, they worship. They do things like bowing down, opening their treasures, and presenting their gifts. And when they don’t return to tell Herod where the newborn King is, Herod responds with his own brand of self-worship, seeking to eliminate the opposition with the murder of the innocents.

Is the worship over at this point? No, I don’t think so. Joseph has taken his family out of the country to keep them safe, and in the dead of the night he has a dream. Joseph always dreams – I wonder if he ever felt cheated that he didn’t get any angelic visitations in broad daylight but only dreams in the dark of the night. Or maybe he was relieved. Anyway, he has a dream, and he responds by taking his family back to Israel. He has another dream, and he responds again, finally taking Jesus to Nazareth.

I wonder a lot about worship – are even these thoughts prayerfully offered to whoever will read them an act of worship? What does worship mean to you or me on a personal level, and what about a collective level when we gather with brothers and sisters in Christ? Matthew tells us that the Magi bowed down and worshiped Jesus – does that mean they sang songs? Prayed prayers? Read Scripture? Actions are recorded – they opened their treasures – they presented gifts. So what is it that I treasure, good or bad, that I need to “open” for the Lord? What gifts do I need to give? And is there any Herod in you or me – he was lying about his desire to worship, he had a secret agenda. Do we ever have a secret agenda? Are we after something in our worship? Is that why we complain sometimes that we have not worshiped, because we have not gotten what we are after? A lot of questions, I know.

We uses phrases like “worship service” – in this chapter the two come together, both worship and service. Worship involves things we need like singing and praying and giving and telling God what is on our mind and in our hearts – but worship also puts us at the service of God, like the Magi and Joseph traveling and bowing and protecting and acting in response to God.

Maybe that is the test of worship for us – not what it does for us, but what we do in response.

Julie, Julia, Jesus and 356 Days

The first day of 2010 – I often think of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 at the start of a new year, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot...” – and you can read the rest and reflect on what time it is now for you, and how you will spend the time God has given you in this new year. Just remember that a lot of choices go into how we spend our time, in positive and negative ways, for our growth or our detriment.

One of the books I will be spending time with in 2010 is Philip Yancey’s Grace Notes. It contains daily heart-to-heart conversations about God, yourself, the world, and about everything else. I like this comment from the January 1 reading: “Because of Jesus we need never question God’s desire for intimacy. Does God really want close contact with us? Jesus gave up Heaven for it.” Did you catch that? Jesus gave up heaven so we could have close contact and intimacy with the Father. That is so beyond my comprehension that all I want to do is get to know better this One who loves us so.

Which brings me to the title of this blog and my invitation for the new year.

A couple of weeks ago Holly and I watched the movie, Julie & Julia. It was a truth-inspired tale of Julie Powell, a disenchanted young woman who decides to enliven her uneventful life and find purpose by cooking her way through Julia Child’s classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie decides to spend 365 days working through the 524 recipes, and she delights the ever-growing readers of her blog with her steps and missteps. In the end she has done more than master the art of French cooking – she has found purpose and joy in life.

I am not suggesting that you follow Julie’s example and work yourself through a cookbook in a year. As my wife Holly and I watched the movie, I was struck at how much Julie was inspired by what she read and the person (Julia Child) she was getting to know. Writing a blog about each day helped cement things in her thoughts and soul – but I am not suggesting that either.

Inasmuch as Jesus gave up heaven by coming into our midst so we could know Him intimately, I would suggest that you give the next 365 days to a pursuit of Jesus.

Did you realize that if you simply read one chapter out of a Gospel a day, you can cover the four Gospels four times in a year – actually, in 356 days? What’s more, if you seek to apply what you read, reflect on Jesus’ character, make Jesus’ choices, live a life that mirrors His, you will find more purpose and joy than you could ever find in a cookbook, to say nothing of the greater intimacy you will discover. Blog about it if you want, journal it and you will hang on to your insights, but whatever you do, pray about what you read each day and you will find your life changed. You will not only know the Gospels in a way you never have before – with prayer, you will know Jesus as you never have before.

What a great way to spend the time God has given you in this new year!

Christmas Leftovers

After Christmas there seems to be all sorts of leftovers – food in the fridge, half-price sales in the stores, a mess in the house. Joyfully we anticipated the coming of Christmas, but now that it is over, what do we have to show for it? Leftovers?

I think there is a great question for us to ask on the Sunday after Christmas – I am asking the congregation I pastor this question and I ask you as well – over this Christmas season did you get a chance to see Jesus?

The apostle John talks about that – he got to see the glory of God manifested before his very eyes. I love the way he words it in 1 John 1 – "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life – and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you." Historically John was one of those blessed few who saw the glory of God in the flesh.

There were others who had seen the glory of God – the splendor, the majesty of God Almighty. Isaiah in the temple, Moses before the burning bush, Israel in the cloud, Ezekiel and God’s throne. But this was different for John. "We beheld his glory," John says in John 1:14 – but it was not a glory that overwhelmed people, not a brilliance that blinded, not an excellence that shamed. No, as one writer put it, His splendor was robed in the coarse garment of human nature; His brilliance shone through the prism of human flesh, His excellence was seen in the light of our common day.

We beheld his glory, John says – and in his gospel he tells about the ministry of Jesus, His compassion for a woman at a well, a failure from every other person’s standards, an outcast, one who had crossed the line – and yet one who could receive from the Creator of the universe life.

We beheld his glory — we saw the lame walk, the leper cleansed, the hungry fed, the blind see.

We beheld his glory – and for John, that meant the suffering and the cross. John 1:14 declares, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory" – we saw what he had come for, the moment in time when the cradle was replaced by a crown of thorns, when the baby’s coo became the Creator’s cry, when a mother wept not in joy, but in horror. We beheld his glory – His battle with death, His confrontation with sin, His paying of the ultimate price – that we might live.

We beheld his glory – that Easter morning the grave was opened and confusion and chaos was replaced by the shout, “He is alive! He is alive!”

We beheld His glory – the glory that brings the same confession as that which slipped from the lips of Thomas – “My Lord and My God!” Thomas saw the face of God in Jesus.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.” And so here is the leftover question of the season – have you seen Jesus? If not, it’s not too late.

On Christmas And Having Christ Within...

Every year she’s there. You can’t miss her, she is just off center, a look of love and adoration on her face. She has a robe on, and for some reason it is almost always blue. Her hair is covered, with a strand or two escaping the folds, long, often dark, sometimes blond, maybe red, a slight wave.

She is the mother of Jesus, and once a year we honor her, we give her a place in a manger scene, we dress up a little girl in a bathrobe and give her a plastic baby doll and let her walk on stage. Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary, the one the angel called “blessed.”

A lot of Christians don’t know what to do with Mary. Many things have been said about her through the centuries, and a good number of those have no basis in Scripture. Some even reflect a gross misunderstanding of Jesus. Bottom line, nobody knows us like Jesus, and a mother’s love is a distant second to the love of the Savior.

Still, Mary was in on things from the beginning. She received the angel’s greeting, and she pondered what it meant to have the Lord with her. If she has anything to teach us, it is in her response. Listen to her words in Luke 1:38, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” What a contrast that is to other Biblical characters. When Abraham heard God’s promise, he didn’t know how to respond. Sarah responded with laughter. Zechariah asked for proof. But Mary simply responds with belief, a belief wrapped up in obedience. That should be our response as well.

We speak of having Jesus within us as Christ followers. Paul gives us a basis for that when he says in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Max Lucado says that we must not miss out on the reason we are placed on this earth, to be so pregnant with heaven’s child that He lives through us. I really like that image – so pregnant with heaven’s child that He lives through us. What would that be like for us to have Christ within? Lucado writes these reflections in his book, Next Door Savior:

To have my voice, but him speaking.
My steps, but Christ leading.
My heart, but his love beating
in me, through me, with me.
What’s it like to have Christ on the inside?

To tap his strength when mine expires
or feel the force of heaven’s fires
raging, purging wrong desires.
Could Christ become my self entire?

So much him, so little me
that in my eyes it’s him they see.
What’s it like to a Mary be?
No longer I, but Christ in me.

And it all begins as we give God Mary’s response, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said." May that response be our Christmas gift to God this year.

Old Friends

Something happened this week that brought delight to my soul. Three old friends made contact with me in as many days. Two of them were from a church I pastored in the early 1980's, and the third was a pastor friend I hadn’t seen or heard from in more than twenty-five years. Through Facebook, emails, and phone calls, we caught up on the happenings of those silent years, and I was reminded that life went on for each of us even if we had completely forgotten about each other’s existence. I am sure those years carried a lot of joys and sorrows for each of us, but it was good to know that God had continued His kindness to each, and that each of us had a journey to share.

We sometimes forget that the first Christmas was the breaking of the silence by an old friend – in this case, I should capitalize “Friend.” The Old Testament era ends with God’s people struggling to form a faith community again, clinging to the promise that some day God would send the Christ. As the years passed, I wonder if some forgot – forgot the promise, forgot the hope, maybe even forgot the Father. Those years were shaped by all the things that shape our lives – the ups and downs of economy, the birth of babies and the death of elders, the expected and the unexpected, the hoped for and the feared. And then one day God broke the silence – angels spoke to an old man and a young maiden, a dream assured a worried husband, and before all was said and done the heavens exploded with shouts of glory and the assurance that God, having once broken the silence, would never be silent again. As John puts it in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

Christmas reminds us of that Friend who wants to journey with us through life. He split the heavens and came in person into our midst, and now He comes to reside in the heart of every person who will receive Him. Spend some time catching Him up on the joys and sorrows of this past year. Yes, I know, He already knows them all, but it will do you good and you will find your spirit lifted and your soul delighted as you journey with this old Friend who promises never to leave you or forsake you. What a friend we have in Jesus -- One who will never lose touch with us!

Thirty-Five Years

Thirty-five years ago on December 7, 1974, my wife Holly and I were married. I have said to our children that we were just kids and didn’t know what we were doing, and I think there is more truth to that then I care to admit. I didn’t know how great marriage could be but also how difficult and challenging. For whatever reason, I thought if you picked the right person it was easy. I am sure there have been times in our marriage where my wife wondered if she picked the right person – but then, maybe she understood more what marriage would mean than I did.

I am fond of quoting David and Vera Mace when I perform weddings. They write, “A wedding is not a marriage. A wedding is only the beginning of an undertaking that may or may not, someday, develop into a marriage. What a couple have on their wedding day is not the key to a beautiful garden, but just a vacant lot and a few gardening tools.”

A vacant lot and a few gardening tools – most of us thought we were getting more than that when we said, “I do!” The years of marriage include a lot of hard work, breaking up the soil, tossing out the rocks, pulling weeds, planting seeds. But the years of marriage, if we work at it, also yield a great garden to enjoy with your beloved. I think it also makes us better people if we will accept what marriage offers us. We learn to put the other person first, deny ourselves for a greater good, be mature rather then petty, giving rather than grasping. I am not saying that this happens automatically or easily – in fact, we will wind up doing a lot of praying in the midst of it all. But again, when we accept what marriage offers, the payoff is tremendous and the joy is sweet.

Lewis Smedes once said that his wife had been married to seven different men in her lifetime, and everyone of them was him. My wife could probably say the same. We do change, just as our lives together change. Simplistically we may divide marriage according to tasks, whether it is starting out, having children, coping with teenagers, or facing the empty nest. But we do change – we change with the passage of time and the best marriages change as well, growing deeper and wiser and greater and stronger and more loving than ever. That has certainly been my experience, and for that I am grateful.

My son Chad was married this past year, and he shared a quote with me by C. S. Lewis. Lewis talks about “falling in love” as the engine that gets a marriage started, but it takes a lot more to keep it going. For Lewis love “is a deep unity maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced (in Christian marriage) by the grace which both partners ask and receive from God.”

Those are wise words – the unity of marriage requires an act of will, a daily choice to put the other before yourself. It is strengthened by habit, which means we all should pay attention to what our marriage habits are, whether they help or hinder marriage. And marriage calls on both partners to receive and extend the grace of God.

Thirty-five years ago I said I would take Holly for better for worse, in sickness and health, for good times and bad, be we rich or poor. I didn’t really know what all that meant then – but I have to tell you, thirty-five years later I am exceedingly grateful to share my life with Holly and I can’t imagine life in any other way. My wife said that thirty-five years is a long time – but we both agree it is not long enough!