A man and his son arrive at a beach to play in the sand. After unloading the car the man turns to his son and suggests that they build a sandcastle together. Filled with excitement the son grabs the necessary tools and runs down to the shore. He begins filling bucket after bucket with wet sand as he digs a moat. The father, having done this before, invites his son to move up the beach because he sees that the tide is out. In just a few hours it will return and once again consume the part of the beach that the son has already began to construct upon. Filled with excitement the son ignores his father and continues to fashion the castle. Carving out windows, court yards, and doorways this castle quickly becomes a master piece. The son becomes filled with awe and as his father reaches out his words fall upon deaf ears. The draw bridge is set, the flag flies high, and the castle is complete. The son turns around with a smile on his face seeking the approval of his father yet the father is busy building a castle of his own. “Daddy, daddy” the son yells, “look what I have done!” As the son turns around to point at his castle he notices that it has been consumed by the rising tide. With each crashing wave the son’s hard work is washed out to sea. With tears in his eyes the son feels the embrace of his fathers arms. “Daddy, daddy… it was a masterpiece. I wish you could have seen it.” The father kneels down, fills a pail with the remains of his son’s creation, and says, “Can you help me finish my castle?”
My Father has given me every tool I need to get the job done and in my ignorance I charge into battle alone to complete the task. This is an invitation to myself and to those who have ears to hear. Our kingdom’s will wash away but his Sandcastles.Will.Remain
-Billy
My introduction to youth ministry started long before I ever became a youth pastor as my friends and I set out to play music to a generation of kids who were sick and tired of the church. Exhausted by sermons preached from the gospel of fun and games these kids were seeking to be apart of something real and authentic and music was that out let for them. We traveled the country playing shows just so we could invite a few of these church exiles out to dinner.
We wanted to hear their story.
We wanted to share our own.
And the midst we discovered that even though these kids gave up on the church they had yet to give up on their faith in Christ.
These kids had dreams and passions about changing the world yet they were stuck in the economic grid lock that told them that they needed to get good grades in order to go to another school to get better grades. The stories that they found themselves living in were stories that never validated what they were capable of so they jumped ship and found ways of expressing themselves that left their parent’s concerned. Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll were far more provocative then SAT’s, PhD’s, and empty promises that a college education meant that employers would come knocking at your door.
These kids parents and grandparents were the ones who rolled up their sleeves and made the American Dream come true. So lets be honest and role the credits because that era in history is over and the last thing on earth these kids want to do is be known as the generation that inherited a way of life they never wanted.
Parents see it frequently as rebellion and I have come to see it as opportunity. These kids are artist who paint in the medium of compassion and social justice and are begging for the world to give them a canvas to paint upon. Yet their story continues to read, “Get good grades in order to go to another school to get better grades.” Is it any wonder why they have chosen to rebel? Is it any surprise that they have chosen a different story?
I’m not advocating the pathway of sex, drugs, and rock n roll but the questions I would like to suggest today is, has the church provided a better story? Have parents provided a better story? Have youth pastors provided a better story?
I’ve shared meals with thousands and thousands and thousands of teenagers who would argue that the answer is no. In their opinion all the church wants to do is “have fun” or “teach boring theology.” You see these kids wanted to change the world and the church said to them, “Your too young.” You see these kids had dreams about ending world hunger and the school systems said to them, “Get better grades so you can go to college and wait around for another 4 years.” You see these kids aren’t actually kids but in many ways are young adults who are stuck at home playing video games because when they spoke out for the first time, their parents didn’t see an artist but instead saw rebellion.
We have taught them how to stay quite.
We have taught them that they will only be valuable if they graduate.
We have taught them how to maintain the American Dreams that we had and never once stopped to ask if they had dreams of their own.
My plea to every disciple who follows Jesus today is that they may come to see these teenagers as the future of the church. Can we begin inviting these kids to grow up, take responsibility, and follow Jesus once again with everything that they have. Its time to stop asking them to adopt what we have built for ourselves and begin training them to become the best story tellers this world has ever seen. My team and I at the garden are exploring new and creative ways at approaching youth ministry and what we are noticing time and time again is Rebells.Are.Really.Artists
-Billy
Soren Kierkegaard once said that life can only be lived forward and understood backwards. In other words things happen and as they happen I am able to, in some small way, make sense of them. So as I attempt to make sense of 2011 a few observations…
First…
- I can’t seem to shake the thing that makes me me.
- I can’t seem to break away, break apart or break free.
- I am stuck in this shell forever spinning around and around and around until the little kid inside pukes off the ferris wheel and forever ruins his chances with his first crush.
- He will never know what she thinks of him because he can’t seem to break away, break apart or break free.
- Because you see this little boy is me and I can’t seem to shake the things that makes us we.
Next…
- Death always seems to bring new life yet, why has the Phoenix been the only one to get this part right.
- Why has the night forever robbed us of our sun only to give it back to us when she was done.
- You see the a circle never seems to have an end but I always become anxious when you and I talk about that friend.
- That friend that gives life where there once was death.
- That gives peace where I had seemed to have lost my breath.
- He sheds hope to the hopeless and hopefully I’m his next stop since I can’t seem to drop the things I know are killing me.
- Hopefully they kill me well because I heard this year that death always seems to bring a new sort of life.
Finally…
Why do rats race and was there ever a need to explore outer space? I closed my eyes as a kid and saw the moon whispering to the stars about dreams he once had of visiting the earth yet I have to sit here and read this book that loves to ruin all of my dreams. Apparently the man on the moon doesn’t exist and if rats did need to race then they certainly shouldn’t persist. “News flash the moon isn’t made out of cheese” reads the chapter. Page after page and apparently aliens don’t fly saucers and Mike Wazowski isn’t really a monster. He’s a digital representation of our imagination. Thanks a lot Pixar! Big foot was a fake, Nessie a mistake, and I guess Santa Clause doesn’t go on vacation with the Easter Bunny. All this book wants to do is turn me into a rat so that I may enter her race. With my hand raised high the teacher takes notice as I declare that “I don’t want to grow up because at heart I am still a Toys-R-Us kid!” Needless to say she didn’t know how to respond because after all rats don’t speak “English” they only speak as they are spoken too. Cubicles have become cages and cash, cheese. We spin in our sleep around squeaky wheels that make us wonder if there was ever another way to which I must say, yes. Is there really a need to explore outer space or can these rats finally drop out of the race?
Thank you for your wisdom Mr. Kierkegaard. It has lead me to quite a Few.Interesting.Observations
-Billy
Your love is like a flash mob. It arrives unannounced and before anyone can put words to it, it vanishes leaving a puzzled crowd feeling gratitude and worship. As your people try to put words to the event the meaning slowly slips through our finger tips as we wait expectant for it to return. The religious and academic elite record the accounts and do their best to squeeze it void of meaning but the one thing that I can’t seem to shake… is that something happened. You see before I was dead but now… I am more aware of the fact that I am indeed alive than ever before.
The resurrection didn’t just happen 2000 years ago
It happened today
It happened here
It’s happening to me.
Immanuel, or “God with us” is the bold proclamation that God so loved the world that he entered into the cracks of it and loved the hell out of it. Its the proclamation that there is in fact a new way to live, a new way to breathe, and a new way to die. His love is so violently beautiful that it has found us this evening and left us desiring more. I can’t keep telling the same story this year after what just happened because this…. This.Is.Christmas
-Billy
I would like to congratulate the stars
For the songs they have sung and continue to sing to Venus, Neptune and Mars
Their lips burn bright from telling stories of eons past as they serenade the Milky Way, they serenade them everyday, they sing of ways to stay
Yet as they flicker to the beat of their own melodies their time has come to shoot shoot shoot across the sky
To shoot past you and I as we make wishes about wishes we once dreamed
Dreams that came as we fell asleep under the stars
Dreams about traveling to Venus, Neptune and Mars
Dreams that keep our souls burning bright, as our lives have begun to tell new stories
May my life shoot shoot shoot so that others can Wish.Upon.Wishes
-Billy
[video]
I just started to write a book… I think…
[video]
As I sit here in this coffee shop the sun is shinning bright through the windows and its warm kiss lights up the room. It allows me to see the faces of those, whom if only for a moment, are sharing an afternoon with one another as strangers. This warm kiss breathes life into colors that words could never describe, casts shadows across the tiled floor, and provides for all of us warmth, joy and bit of comfort. This light allows me to experience the world that exists in such a way that darkness could never.
As I sit here in this coffee shop I don’t look at the light. I look at what the light illuminates. Because you see, light is humble. It does not wish to be seen. It does not wish to be known. It does not wish to brag or take the glory. It just wishes that others could enjoy afternoons in coffee shops. Light is humble.
-
A close friend of mine is an amazing women’s soccer coach at a local high school. This year her team had a rough pre season but week after week they continued to win game after game until finally they reached the finals undefeated as one of the top picks to win the entire thing. In a single elimination tournament every single game was electric and victory after victory got them to the final game. Shots were taken, goals were made, and the grand stands lost its voice by half time.
The final whistle blows – tie
Over Time
Double Over Time
Penalty Kicks
They lost…
The twenty of us that showed up day after day, game after game, victory after victory in support of our friend now walk to our cars in silence. Why is this? At the end of the day it’s a rubber ball filled with air going between two metal poles into a net. Yet I chewed off every last fingernail I had and lost my voice yelling at the top of my lungs. You know what this looks like. You have been there before. But why?
-
Meaningless Meaningless Meaningless
Hebel Hebel Hebel
Vapor Vapor Vapor
The Author of Ecclesiastes starts his work with these three words. The Hebrew word ‘Hebel’ in most translations becomes the word ‘Meaningless’ but it is done the most justice if we understand it as ‘Vapor’ or ‘Breath.’ Here for a moment and gone the next. This life is like a vapor. It is passing quickly and will be gone as soon as it came. Everything everything everything that exists is meaningless says the author. And this bold statement raises a whole series of questions doesn’t it? Because if your at all like me then you have experienced moments in life that are loaded with meaning. So if everything that exists is meaningless then meaning must come from that which does not exist? What does it mean to exist? And if this author isn’t out of his mind and is actually correct then what does that change?
To exist can simply be defined as “being brought to the foreground” or “having material or substance.”
So this coffee shop: Meaningless
This computer I write on: Meaningless
The drink I just enjoyed: Meaningless
The strangers sharing an afternoon: Meaningless
The light that has kissed this room: Meaningful?
Light doesn’t exist, light is humble. It only wishes to illuminate so that others may enjoy.
So that soccer game: Meaningless
The soccer ball: Meaningless
The soccer players: Meaningless
The grandstands filled with people: Meaningless
The love that brought the friends and family to the game: Meaningful
You see love is a lot like light in that it is humble. Love does not wish to be seen. It does not wish to be known. It does not wish to brag or take the glory. Love fills the grand stands and illuminates significance to that rubber ball flying between those metal poles. Love is humble.
And this is what I think the author of Ecclesiastes is getting at. Everything under the sun is meaningless without love. But with love moments in time begin to have meaning. They begin to have significance. They begin to pop off the pages of life and become stories that we will one day enjoy and laugh at. Its no wonder that Paul in 1 Corinthians states that God is Love. It’s His presence that makes this vapor of life worth so much.
It’s why we cry at funerals. It’s why we laugh with friends. It’s why we wake up morning after morning with a fresh page of opportunity to create.
It’s why art has the ability to steal our breath. It’s why music has the ability to move our soul. It’s why people leave work early to catch glimpses of the sun setting over the ocean.
It’s why people get married. It’s why people have kids. It’s why people wake up one morning on the other side of 45 wondering what in the world they have gotten themselves into.
It’s why the sun shines. It’s why the moon glows. It’s why people for centuries have wanted the stars to tell them stories.
It’s why food has flavor. It’s why flowers have aroma. It’s why afternoons in coffee shops have become so comforting and exciting and enjoyable.
God is Love and Love is Meaningful.Meaningful.Meaningful
-Billy
Head back pressed up against this wall, as I look out the window, today the rain falls up. Stories of men and women paint this week the color hope as some worlds are flipped on their heads. Twenty songs arrived this week but they will be singing a different tune all the way home. Songs in the key of blood spilt from the Mission. Songs in the key of pride from the Castro. Songs in the key of love from the Haight. Songs that showed each of us that houseless and homeless are different things and that these men and women have something that we so desperately need. Tomorrow will be bitter-sweet as the Gates of Gold become the horizon behind us but I shall enjoy the rest of today, because with my head back pressed up against this wall, The.Rain.Still.Falls.Up
-Billy
Assumption: I think its safe to assume that if you believe in Jesus Christ that you would agree with me when I say that he was the best teacher to have ever lived and his model of teaching is an example in which we should all follow.
Observation: We’ve settled for something less and what’s even worse is we are convinced that our way is far more effective.
The West has adopted the Academy system where students spend the first thirteen years of their lives consuming concepts, ideas and theories. If they choose to pursue higher education the work becomes more difficult but the system doesn’t change much at all. In the West the church has decided to use this same system to produce leaders, pastors and teachers.
For the most part, the would be leader is withdrawn from the context of ordinary life and ministry in order to study in a somewhat cloistered environment, for up to seven years in some cases. During that period they are subjected to an immense amount of complex information relating to the biblical disciplines, theology, ethics, church history, pastoral theology, ect. And while the vast majority of this information is useful and correct, what is dangerous to discipleship in that setting is the actual socialization processes that the student undergoes along the way. In effect, he or she is socialized out of ordinary life and develops a kind of language and thinking that is seldom understood and expressed outside of the seminary. It’s as if in order to learn about ministry and theology, we leave our places of habitation and take flight into a wonderfully abstracted world of abstraction, we fly around there for a long period of time, and then wonder why we have a hard time landing once again.
This model couldn’t be further away from the way that Jesus taught us how to develop disciples. And it is not that Jesus lacked an appropriate model of the Academy. The Greeks had developed it hundreds of years before Christ, and it was well entrenched in the Greco-Roman world by the time Jesus started making disciples. The Hebrew worldview was a life oriented one and was not primarily concerned with concepts and ideas in themselves. I mentioned it before but it’s worth repeating that the Academy is almost solely organized around the transfer of concepts, ideas, and theories. And so the seminaries, or institutions built on a similar academic model, are largely unable to produce leaders, pastors, and teachers. It’s not that they don’t try or don’t want to. The problem inherent in the seminary is that the in-tray of information is piled high while the out-tray of action and obedience is just about empty. The academy demands passivity in the student, whereas discipleship, the model Jesus gives us, requires activity. If discipleship has to do primarily with becoming like Jesus, then it cannot be achieved by the mere transfer of information outside of the context of ordinary lived life. We cannot continue to try and think our way into a new way of acting, but rather, we need to act our way into a new way of thinking.
Yet even at a quick glance it’s not hard to see that we build churches around these “teachers.” We consume their books, their sermons, their words, concepts, ideas and theories, yet we find ourselves Monday morning in one of two predicaments. Either we are convinced that this consumption of information actually is what it means to be a Christian and the be all end all of our discipleship is nothing more than showing up Sunday after Sunday trying to consume as much as we can. Or, we find ourselves digesting these concepts, ideas, and theories. We find ourselves thinking in a new paradigm while our actions are largely unaffected which leaves us stumped at how to apply this newfound knowledge. We become frustrated as we experience this dissonance in our own lives and find ourselves once again returning to the “teachers” to tell us how to fix this problem. We return to church, run back to the books, or download just another podcast to consume more information thinking and hoping that one day it will just click. That one day all of this consuming will produce an answer. That one day this new way of thinking will produce a new way of acting. And it simply won’t.
Jesus never wrote a book, his sermons were confusing, shocking and he never broke things down or explained the meaning of his stories, the more popular he became the more elusive he was, and he spent three years investing in twelve goofballs the DNA of his entire message. His methods and strategies would be largely rejected if he were to try and plant a church today by his own followers. While He would be investing in the lives of the local prostitutes, his disciples would be writing their next book explaining what church growth looks like for 2011.
Back to my assumption. I am convinced that Jesus knew what he was doing. And I am convinced that his model of teaching is far superior than anything we could ever dream up. The Academy and pursuit of knowledge is something that we need to move forward and stay relevant but it can no longer be the only answer to creating leaders, pastors, and teachers. I have so much hope for the church as we enter into this new decade. It is my prayer that our imaginations would no longer be hijacked by the Greco-Roman world. It is my hope that we can reclaim and reactivate the model Jesus has given us. May we become the generation that is marked by an Outtray.Full.Of.Stories
-Billy
I met a man in this coffee shop the other day.
Frazzled silver kissed hair. Eyes that shone blue in his youth but now tell the story of a decade of loneliness.
His hands were callused with years of maintenance work. Maintenance that paid the bills. Maintenance that helped his father. Maintenance that made penning his poetry that much sweeter.
This man’s name is Michael and I met him at a coffee shop the other day.
“Do you mind if I sit here with you sir?” His British accent tells the story of his youth spent roaming the streets of London. Twenty years spent exploring the academies and museums. Married to the system of education but torn by his adulterous love for the arts.
“No I don’t mind at all sir, please sit.” I replied.
This man I met at a coffee shop the other day shared with me a few of his poems.
“What are you working on there sir?” I asked.
“I write.”
“What are you writing?”
“I write stories. I write poems. Whatever comes to mind really. I’ve always enjoyed it.”
“Do you mind sharing one with me?”
“Certainly! This ones called Einstein’s hair.” He handed me a crumbled up piece of paper he had been scribbling on for the past twenty minuets.
I met a man at the coffee shop the other day that taught me some things about life.
Eagerly waiting to see what I would say as he shared with me apart of who he was. Something he had yet to share with anyone else. Something that was still in the works and rather vulnerable.
He stepped into this coffee shop to do what he loved doing and was willing to share the deepest part of who he was with a total stranger like me. We spent the following hour discussing life and all of the crazy quarks that come along with it. And as quickly as he came into that coffee shop he left, but not before giving me the gift of a conversation.
Moments later, before I could even process what just took place, I received a phone call from someone who has it all. Someone who isn’t thousands of miles away from home. Someone who doesn’t work a job they hate to feed a hobby they love. Someone who has more community and relationships than they know what to do with. And they don’t even appreciate or respect a single one of them.
My heart breaks.
I hate living in a world where my new friend Michael can live in loneliness and bear his heart to a complete stranger while my other friend has everything Michael longs for but doesn’t give any of it the time of day.
I hate living in a world where my brothers and sisters over seas die every single day to the plague of starvation. When all they need to survive is the money my neighbors spend on gym memberships to avoid death by obesity.
I hate living in a world where my brothers and sisters moan and groan at a weekly Bible study. When others put their lives on the line to smuggle the same book across boarders to those who are moaning and groaning with the rest of creation as we wait expectantly.
I want to spend my life with those who value what life is all about.
I want to give my time to the ones who are hungry for a conversation.
I want to offer my resources to the people who have the capacity to cherish them.
I want to give my life to the rejected, the lonely, the hungry, the homeless, the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, the transient, the lost, the confused, the abused, and the hurting.
I dream of spending holidays with those who have nowhere to go.
I dream of throwing surprise birthday parties for the ones who don’t know what blowing out a candle even feels like.
I dream about sharing meals, about impacting the world, and up rooting the evils that live under injustice.
I dream
And to those who said that I couldn’t
I look at your lives and know that I wouldn’t
Want to follow in your foot steps down the path you forgot trail blaze.
To those who rolled their eyes
I look at your lives
And wonder if you’ve ever begun to live.
To the pessimist and the realist.
To the doubtful and the drab.
To the couch critic and the cynic.
I dare you to dream.
I dare you to dream big.
So big that your head hurts and spins and whirls with ideas that tomorrow doesn’t have to look like today.
Today I dare you to dream, because I promise you, no matter how big you dream, His.Kingdom.Will.Be.Bigger
-Billy
It’s three in the morning when a man is diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Instantly his response is to call for the hospital Chaplin. The Chaplin is woken by the midnight phone call as the nurse explains this cancer patient’s urgency in wanting to speak with God. Half asleep the Chaplin gets out of bed and makes his way over to the hospital that the patients request. Upon arrival the Chaplin is rather shocked to find the patient in high spirits. The Chaplin introduces himself and says, “You certainly don’t look like the typical person who has just been hit with bad news.”
“Your right,” explained the patient, “The doctors got my results mixed up with someone else’s. I don’t actually have cancer so you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”
Rather bewildered the Chaplin stammers, “So you don’t want to ask any questions about God tonight?”
“Well why would I? I’m not dying. I’ll deal with God when I have to.”
Half in shock, half asleep still, 100% confused the Chaplin turned around and headed back to his car to go home.
The religion of fear is one that lives deep down inside even the greatest of atheists. We interact with God much like we interact with an annoying boss or a bad professor. We only want to deal with that person when we absolutely have to. We coming running to God verbally repentant saying things like…
“God I know I’ve made some mistakes but if you’ll just, then I promise to…”
“Lord if you would just, then I promise this will be the last time that I will…”
“I’ll do anything you want just give me…”
We try and manipulate God as if He is swayed by our proposals. As if he is moved by our bargaining skills. Like He’s just another human that we can use for our own personal gain. But you know what’s funny about this whole thing, is I’ve come to learn that the one thing God will ask us to do is the one thing that we would never be willing to do in those moments. We come to Him saying we would be willing to do anything but the one thing he wants is our complete surrender with no expectations in return. The one thing he will ask for is our lives on the simple basis that he is worthy, not because he is a giver of gifts. Yet in that moment we are so wrapped up in our religion of fear that letting go simply isn’t an option.
God can I be honest tonight? I’m terrified. And this religious system of fearful manipulation sounds so good right now. Can I be blunt Lord? I’m confused. And this religious system of fearful manipulation seems so much better than the system you created. Jesus can I be real with you right now? I’m sick of this. And this religious system of fearful manipulation where I get what I want and you can pretend that my best is half decent sounds really good right now. God, I know what you’re asking for and it’s the hardest thing to do while I know it’s your only option. Logically, intellectually, mentally, I get that, I understand. Emotionally, physically, spiritually, I don’t get that, I’m lost.
So verbally I declare you as the Lord of my life to get this thing started but you need to show me what that looks like tomorrow morning because I’m starting to buy into this religion of fear thing I know that doesn’t work. I know what you’re asking for. I know what you want. And I know that I Need.Your.Help
-Billy
Every week I go to the same grocery store. Every week I check out in the same lane. The same cashier greets me, scans my items, and asks how I’m doing every single week. This sweet old woman’s hair is always tied up in a ponytail, which slips through the back of her hat. She wears a green apron over her white button down shirt, which is tucked into her tan slacks. She always wears a smile, always smells of perfume and always tells me to have a good week.
The other day I was sitting in church, the worship team played a few songs, the pastor delivered a message, and then we were invited to respond to whatever God was doing. I decided to sit in my seat and pray when I “felt God’s presence” come into the room. I sat there and just enjoyed the moment. The pastor prayed and we all left the building to head to lunch. A few of us made it over to a deli down the street and right when I walked in the front door I noticed a woman sitting by herself in the back of the room. As we ordered food and sat down I couldn’t help but glance over at this woman. There was something strangely familiar about her but for the life of me I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I noticed that she began to glance over at me. At this point it really began to bug why I couldn’t figure out how I knew this lady. I started to rack my brain to figure it out. It wasn’t from church, it wasn’t from school, and wasn’t from my hometown. The food came out to our table, conversations about the message we just heard began to ensue, and I sat there staring off into the distance as I mindlessly shoved food down my throat all while trying my hardest to pinpoint this mystery woman. As she finished her food and made her way to the trash she passed right by our table and as I looked up she wore a very familiar smile. It clicked! That smile was all I needed to realize that this lady was my sweet old woman from the grocery store. Week after week I would see her wearing the same outfit, in the same location, saying the same things, so to run into her in a different context completely through me for a loop. I couldn’t recognize this woman if there wasn’t a counter between us. I couldn’t recognize this woman if she wasn’t scanning my food and I wasn’t handing her money. I couldn’t recognize this woman outside of the grocery store. Outside of the context I knew her in. In that moment God showed me something.
We are so absorbed into our own little worlds that we forget that God is much bigger than the realities we see around us. In fact we have become so good at identifying God in the settings we expect to encounter him in, that we have become incapable of seeing him anywhere else. Think about this for a second. You know what God feels like at church. We know how Jesus shows up at a prayer meeting. And you know what the Holy Spirit feels like in a worship service.
But outside of that context.
Outside of those normal encounters with God.
We have no idea what God looks like.
What does God look like in a nightclub? What does Jesus look like walking down the street? What does the Holy Spirit feel like when we aren’t surrounded by hundreds of other Christians all singing the same song?
This is exactly what the Pharisees were guilty of. They had God so figured out in their minds. They had him so pinned down and explained away. That when Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, walked down the street they had no clue who he was. They were so consumed in their ideas about God that they couldn’t recognize the Messiah they had been praying for.
I think we miss God on the sidewalks because we only know what he looks like on Sunday. I think we miss Jesus in the star bucks because we only know what he looks like at the prayer meeting. I think we miss the Holy Spirit at the grocery store because we only know what he feels like during worship services.
It is my prayer that we become the kinds of people that begin to adopt a much broader view of who God is. The kinds of people who can lay down the expectations we carry around about God and allow him to be who He already is. The kinds of people who can encounter him at church but also at the Deli.Down.The.Street
-Billy
In the beginning God bara’
In the beginning God created
In the beginning God made everything needed to form or shape everything we see out of nothing.
Then God made light and darkness.
The waters and skies.
The seas and the land.
The days and the nights.
The creatures of the seas and the birds of the air.
The animals of the land and finally He bara’ man.
He created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.
Six days of creation, One day of rest and God sets the rhythm of life as he creates Eden. The shalom of God is hovering over the earth as God and man walk peacefully in each other’s presence.
Genesis 1 and 2 give us a snapshot of God’s intention for his people. It gives us a glimpse into what was intended for all of us to enjoy but something goes wrong in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve trade in heaven on earth, perfect union with God, a flawless harmony with creator and creation, for a granny smith apple.
All because a serpent deceived them. Sin enters the world and everything that God created is thrown out of alignment with its original intent.
We go from Adam and Eve eating an apple to the story of their son Cain killing their other son Able all because of jealousy. Things go terribly wrong terribly fast. We’ve gone from eating fruit to murder in one generation. Things are falling apart very quickly. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden (Gen 4:16).
East of Eden.
East of heaven on earth.
East of perfect union with God.
East of original intent and flawless harmony.
And east this story continues to run because right after the murder, a close descendant of Cain’s, Lamech, says that if “Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” The escalation of violence is so intense that a close relative of Cain’s says things are eleven times worse than they were before. And then by chapter 6 of Genesis, just a few chapters after Cain kills Able, we find out that the whole world is headed for destruction except for one man and his family. And by chapter 11, people have gotten together to build a tower that they are convinced will make them gods. We started with two people and some fruit, which escalated to murder among family members and now has evolved into an entire civilization at odds with God. What began in a little garden is now impacting the entire globe.
In Genesis 12 God reaches down by grace in attempts to restore his people by making a promise to man named Abram. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing (Gen 12:2).” Abram is obedient to God in a crazy world and because of this his blessing is passed down to Isaac and then Jacob who later is given the name Israel. Israel has twelve sons and through these 12 men we find ourselves even further east of Eden in the land of Egypt.
Egypt, the superpower of its day, was ruled by Pharaoh, who responded to the growing number of Israelites in his country by forcing them into slavery. They had to work every day without a break, making bricks building storehouses for Pharaoh. Egypt is an Empire. An Empire built on the backs of Israelite slave labor. An Empire built by bricks. 400 years of bricks without stopping once.
Until God sends a shepherd named Moses, a descendant of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, to stand against this Empire of bricks. Moses challenges Pharaoh and they go back and forth many times until the night comes where Moses and the Israelites pack their things and leave Egypt. Egypt chases them down, God parts the red sea, Israel escapes at the last moment and God allows Pharaoh and the rest of his brick obsessed empire to drown. As the red sea closes in it silences just for a moment what started with our parents eating some fruit.
God for the first time since the Garden speaks to all of his people at the base of Mount Sinai. God gives Moses the Ten Words or as we know them, the Ten Commandments. God is reaching out and teaching his people how to be his people once again. For 400 years their identity was bricks, bricks and more bricks and the Ten Words are God’s way of saying you are my beloved. The Israelites journey through the desert for 40 years as God is bringing them to the land he promised them. If they traveled straight to their destination it would have only taken them two weeks to do it. While it took a matter of moments for God to free Israel from Egypt it about 40 years in the desert for God to get Egypt out of Israel. It took 40 years to prepare his people for the land they would inherit.
God’s words to the people through Moses begin with “if you obey me fully.” Its an invitation, its an opportunity, but it’s a giant if, isn’t it? “If you obey me fully.” Which raises the question, Did they? Were they true to these Ten Words? These Ten Commandments? This new instruction manual on how to be God’s people? Were they true to this new covenant? Did they obey him fully? How did they respond to such an invitation? What started with our parents eating fruit led us to Egypt, which got us to Sinai but to travel any further in this story we must go East of Eden some more. We must journey to Jerusalem.
Generations later, the descendants of these wandering slaves have settled into the land they were promised. Their great king David has secured their boarders, the land and people are experiencing peace, and David’s son Solomon comes to power. Solomon is brilliant and wise and wealthy, and Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom, begins to gain a global reputation. A queen from a different land, Sheba comes to visit Solomon. She’s from far away, from a different land, from a different kind of people, with a different religion. And she wants to know more about these people and their king and their God in Jerusalem.
Sounds a lot like the promise God gave to Abram is coming true. God would bless him to be a blessing. And here we are finally in the land God promised being a blessing to the world as Sheba travels to hear about this God.
This pegan queen comes to town and ask questions, eats meals, watch worship, she surveys the land and she says, “Because the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.”
What is justice and righteousness? Its freedom, liberation from violence, protection from anything dehumanizing. Sheba understands that God has given all of this wealth and power and influence so that Solomon would in turn use these blessings to be a blessing. To bless the poor, weak, and suffering from injustice. Sheba gets it but does Solomon?
What does Solomon at the end of the day do with this blessing? What does he do with this wealth and power and influence? Does he steward it back to his people and bless them?
“Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer (1 Kings 9:15).
Another word for forced labor is, slave.
And the temple, the palace, the walls, what could they possibly be made out of?
Bricks?
This is the same God who set his people free from being enslaved to making bricks. And as a result of this freedom Solomon is now a king forcing the labor of bricks.
What started with fruit led us East of Eden and into slavery in Egypt. God heard the cries of his people and freed them to Sinai. He restored his people through the desert and back to the promised land of Jerusalem to be a blessing but instead they become their own Egypt.
Solomon isn’t maintaining justice; he’s now perpetuating the very injustice his people once needed redemption from and, in the process, building a kingdom of comfort. He dines in his palace and strolls on terraces built on the backs of Israelite slave labor. God blesses his people to be a blessing and God’s people keep that blessing and build empires of bricks to protect it.
His empire become so big that he builds Hazor Megiddo and Gezer. What are these towns? They are military basses. Solomon is using his massive resources and wealth to build military basses to protect his massive resources and wealth.
Later we find out that Solomon accumulated fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses to store in these military basses. The last time we saw horses and chariots was when we looked over our shoulders as we ran through the red sea while Pharaoh chased us with horse drawn chariots.
We escaped an empire of bricks, horses and chariots to become a blessing. But instead we took that blessing and created the very thing we ran from.
Which takes us back to the covenant God gave. “If you obey me fully.” Here’s the answer to our question. Did they obey God fully? No.
What started with fruit led us East of Eden and into slavery in Egypt. God heard the cries of his people and freed them to Sinai. He restored his people through the desert and back to the promised land of Jerusalem to become a blessing and instead they became their own Egypt. This new Egypt and new Pharaoh only leads to one place. Exile. Exile is when you forget where you come from. Exile is not a location but a posture of our soul. Exile is when you forget that God’s covenant is for his people to be blessed so they can be a blessing. And this is where we meet the prophets, powerful voices who warned of the inevitable consequences of Israel’s infidelity.
God wants to live among the people in the sacred union of the divine and human, but they aren’t interested. “The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy (2 Chronicles 36:15-16).”
Amos gets kicked out of the palace, Jeremiah gets beaten up and put in stocks and thrown in a pit, and people don’t change. They don’t remember Eden, They disregard God’s promise to Abram, they blow off Egypt, and they don’t remember Sinai. They are too comfortable because this time the empire of bricks has built them the power they are enjoying. And from atop there thrown of comfort they can’t hear the cries of the oppressed.
Israel has run so far East of Eden and ignored every outstretched arm of grace that they are on their own. Eventually “the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar. He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the LORD’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there. He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.”
Everything has fallen apart, the temple is destroyed, many are killed, and those who survive are carried off to a foreign land called Babylon. Those survivors become servants and servants is just another word for one that has become very familiar in this story, slave. Are we in Babylon or are we back in Egypt?
What started with fruit led us East of Eden and into slavery in Egypt. God heard the cries of his people and freed them to Sinai. He restored his people through the desert and back to the promised land of Jerusalem to become a blessing and instead they became their own empire of bricks. Jerusalem becomes the new Egypt and Solomon the new Pharaoh. Military basses, horses, chariots and once again more bricks. Not obeying God fully leads them back to slavery. Leads them to Babylon. Leads them to another Egypt.
The Jewish Scriptures come to a close with a great sense of anticipation, hope and expectancy for the coming Messiah. He would be the one to put an end to the present age marked by sin, death, Satan, rebellion and exile of Israel and inaugurate the age to come which would be marked by peace, glory, knowledge of the Lord, new covenant, resurrection, pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and restoration of creation. The Israelite community is scattered. Some are still in exile and others have made it back to Jerusalem only to find a new empire of bricks run by the Romans. 400 years of silence. 400 years of anticipation. 400 years of expectation for the coming King. A King of Kings to set up his kingdom on earth here and now. The Jewish hope was that God himself would intervene- that just as He rescued His people from Egypt through Moses, so He would rescue His people from foreign oppression through the Messiah. A new king from the line of David, the heir to the throne of Israel, would establish His kingdom, slaughter the occupying army, tear down the pagan shrines, gather the Jews from their dispersion through out the land, cleanse the land, and rebuild Jerusalem. God himself would come to reign, glorifying his temple and welcoming any Gentiles who sought to love according to His law. The land would flourish with peace and prosperity.
It’s written in the book of Exodus that when the Israelites were finally freed from their slavery in Egypt, they had been there four hundred and thirty years. Which takes us back to Babylon. The end of the exile could be marked by Nehemiah’s return to Jerusalem around 430 BC.
Four hundred and thirty years in Egypt, and then comes Moses.
Four hundred and thirty years back home in Jerusalem, but still in some form of exile.
Four hundred and thirty years hoping that God will restore the kingdom of Israel.
Four hundred and thirty ears with the boots of the enemy still on their necks.
And after four hundred and thirty years Jesus is born.
Jesus is born on the outskirts of outskirts to a poor junior high virgin who is engaged to her freshman in high school boyfriend. Jesus is born in a dirty animal troth in the worst of sanitary conditions. These conditions and circumstances couldn’t have been further from the Jewish expectations as to who would be heir to the throne of David.
But Jesus does it. Where our first father Adam fell short and gave in to sin, Jesus becomes the last Adam and passes the test of temptation in the desert. In doing so imputed his righteousness to us to overcome the sin imputed to us through the sin of the first Adam. Jesus is the true and better Able who, although he was innocent, was slain and whose blood cries out for our redemption. When Isaac carried his own wood and laid down his life to be sacrificed at the hand of his father Abraham, he was showing us what Jesus would later do. Jesus is the greater Jacob, who wrestled with God in Gethsemane and, though wounded and limping, walked away from his grave blessed. Jesus is the final Moses, in his death, burial, and resurrection provides for us the final exodus in which we receive the new and permanent covenant from God. Jesus is the greater Solomon in that he uses his blessings and powers only to bless those around him.
What started with fruit led us East of Eden and into slavery in Egypt. God heard the cries of his people and freed them to Sinai. He restored his people through the desert and back to the promised land of Jerusalem to become a blessing and instead they became their own empire of bricks. Jerusalem becomes the new Egypt and Solomon the new Pharaoh. Military basses, horses, chariots and once again more bricks. Not obeying God fully leads them back to slavery. Leads them to Babylon. Leads them to another Egypt. Leads them to a place of oppression and has them once again crying out for help. This leads us to a little town called Bethlehem where Jesus became a man and entered into human history as the final Moses providing the permanent Exodus through his blood on the cross.
We are given his Spirit and commanded to do his work here and now on earth as we restore all things back to Him. We live in the in between, the radical middle, the space between the first and second coming. We live in the Now and The Not Yet. The Kingdom has come but we need to pray for it to come. It’s in our midst yet it hasn’t fully arrived. Jesus birth inaugurated the coming of this Kingdom and his second coming will fulfill its power and presence here on earth. While our feet are firmly planted in the present age of sin and death we are able to reach out and tap into the age to come, tap into the kingdom of God and bring foretastes of his kingdom here and now.
It is our job to remember our story. To remember where we come from so we won’t make the same mistakes. So that we can become the people God blesses so that we can in turn become a blessing. It’s our job to remember that this all started in a garden with some fruit. And since then has led us East.Of.Eden
-Billy