Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Broken and Shared

In my last post I shared a shortened version of my first preaching message in over 10 years. I wanted to do a series focusing on the Last Supper and in particular the 4 actions we see Jesus doing with the bread that is representative of his body. Jesus took (chose), blessed, broke, and gave (shared) the bread to his disciples. I covered these first two actions in my last post and so tonight I’ll share the shortened version of my message discussing the latter two.

Preaching about being broken and being shared had a very different vibe altogether compared to being chosen and being blessed for obvious reasons. Chosenness and blessedness are things we readily invite into our lives and the more the merrier. But suffering and brokenness enter our lives much like uninvited guests. They arrive at inopportune times (as if there is ever an opportune time for suffering), stay longer than you wish, and make a mess of everything. From our vantage point nothing broken is perfect. When a drinking glass gets a chip on it we don’t say, "Now that’s better." Instead we throw it out because not only does it not look good anymore but that chip detracts from it’s useability. So when we read in Hebrews that Christ is ‘perfected’ through suffering and in 1 Peter that we are to rejoice that we participate in the suffering of Christ we think that suffering must mean something different in Greek.


In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.—Hebrews 2:10


Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him –Hebrews 5:8-9

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.—1 Peter 4:12-13

How could suffering make Christ perfect and why in the world ought we to rejoice in any way about participating in it?

A couple years ago I followed along with a very helpful conversation about incarnation and suffering. Incarnation is about much more than just the Word becoming flesh. It is about the Word experiencing everything that flesh and blood human beings experience. The visual image that was presented in this conversation was that of Mary wrapping Jesus in cloth and placing him in a manger. This image was laid along side of the image Joseph of Arimathea wrapping Jesus crucified body in cloth and placing him in the tomb. Both of these pictures bookend the story of incarnation. From birth to death Jesus experienced the depth, width and breadth of our human lives.


Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—Hebrews 2:14

Jesus freely participated in humanity and was perfected through suffering. This leads to two life changing truths:

In this whole ordeal we see that our creator is no stranger to suffering. The God who created us and loves us also understands the depth of our brokenness and suffering because he experienced it all firsthand. Anyone who has ever felt the pain of rejection, betrayal or outright physical abuse can know that God is in their midst as a fellow sufferer.

We also can know that suffering has an expiration date. Suffering and brokenness do not get the last word. The resurrected Christ and the kingdom that he ushers in offer the confident hope that all will be made new.

The fourth and final action of Jesus is the giving of the bread to his disciples. As I worked on this particular aspect of the meal I had avoid the easy temptation to discuss ‘giving’ in the ways we typically think. I could have talked about giving food, water or clothes to those in need. I could have talked about the giving of our time, energy and resources to Christian causes. While all of these things are very important and very biblical I think they miss something critical. Jesus didn’t give us ‘stuff’. He didn’t just give us his time, energy and resources. He gave us himself. He gave his very life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28)

What Jesus shares with the disciples is broken bread that represents his very self and he invites us to do the same. We are invited to share our lives with others in a way that is truly transformational. Even the broken parts of our lives become opportunities to connect with others. I doubt there is anything more universal than suffering. We are broken people in a broken world. If you were speaking to a large group of people and asked if anyone were fans of a particular sports team and put those people together they would have a community of sorts. They could chat about their beloved team and sense a level of closeness with each other on the basis of that commonality. But if you were to ask that large group if anyone has ever lost a loved one to cancer, not only would you have many more people but you’d have an immediate sense of community and a level of intimacy that the sports group could only dream about. Suffering unites in a unique and universal way.

But the sharing we see in this supper is not just sharing for the sake of sharing. It is the kind of sharing that gives life. Jesus shared his life in order to give life. I love what the apostle Paul does in his letter to the Corinthians. He doesn’t share his struggles for the sake of sharing or in order to gain sympathy. He shares it in order to proclaim the all sufficient grace of Christ!


Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.—2 Corinthians 12:8-10

We share our lives in order that we may share His grace with a broken world. We can stand together with others in the midst of suffering and declare the two truths I mentioned earlier. God is no stranger to suffering and suffering doesn’t have the last word. God does.

We are chosen. We are blessed. We are broken. We are given.

Next week I will share how I wrapped up this series as I did my first ever communion service!

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Chosen and Blessed = Bacon and More Bacon

Ten years ago I thought I’d preached my last sermon. I was wrong. This past weekend I came out of retirement, so to speak, and shared a Sunday morning message with a very friendly group of folks in Dekalb, Illinois. Someday I’ll write about that ten year gap in preaching, why I stopped preaching and why I’m starting back up, but not tonight. I need to spend some more time finishing up this weeks message and so tonight I’ll just share a shortened version of last weeks message.

I am a firm believer that we have just as much to learn from Jesus’ actions as his words. Jesus provides patterns and rhythms for our lives and the more we watch the ‘how’ the more we understand the ‘why’. To begin I read the Last Supper account in Luke 22, focusing on the taking, blessing, breaking, and the giving of the bread. When we participate in these actions we are to do them while remembering Jesus. These actions ought to remind us of him and his invitation to participate in them means that we are to also connect with these actions. When we take bread we are to remember how Jesus was taken (chosen) and how we are taken (chosen). When we bless the bread we are to remember how Jesus was blessed and how we are blessed. For the first week I wanted to focus on these two actions so I could give each action more time than having to hurry through all four actions and not adequately deal with each one.

First we are taken, chosen. Last weekend was an event beloved by men all across this country called ‘NFL Draft Day’. College football athletes had already competed in the NFL Combine where they ran, threw, caught, jumped and did every conceivable quantifiable exercise in order to be evaluated by scouts. By the time draft day arrived the experts already had thorough evaluations of all athletes as well as lists of the needs for the teams drafting. If a team had weaknesses in their offensive line (insert Bears joke) these experts had the highest rated athletes to meet that need. Players were ‘taken’ according to their own ability as well as according to the needs of the team. Choosing or selecting is something we’re very skilled at in this world. If you want to see this art form in everyday life just go watch ladies shop for clothes or guys shop for power tools. When we choose items we evaluate all sorts of factors that have everything to do with the item we are choosing. Whether it’s appearance, cost, usefulness or convenience the factors we look at involve the item itself compared to other items.

What I find interesting when God chooses Abraham in Genesis 12 is that there are no factors listed. The passage says absolutely nothing about why he was chosen to be the father of many nations. You’d think if he were filling such an important role in human history God would have given us some sort of idea why he chose this guy. 


His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.—2 Peter 1:3

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.—2 Peter 1:10-11

These 3 verses tell us quite a bit about God’s choosing. First, he doesn’t call us because of anything to do with us. We aren’t chosen because we are the ‘best available’ on the draft board. He called us, chose us, because of HIS glory and goodness. God’s choosing has everything to do with Him. Second, we have some pretty bold promises if we are grounded in the knowledge that we are called by God. Through that knowledge we have what we need to live a godly life and being sure of our calling and election keeps us from stumbling. Those are some pretty big claims! These claims speak to the importance of knowing your true identity. People that are uncertain of who they are, or in this case ‘whose’ they are, find themselves continually in need and continually stumbling through life. How many problems can be boiled down to identity issues? How many people are burnt out trying to please everyone in the hopes that their value may be affirmed? How many people are absolutely devastated by the hurtful words of others? I am fully convinced that were people to understand the pure delight they bring to the Father and the fact that they are beloved by Him, they would be transformed to their core. They would live life differently grounded in that knowledge.

Second, we are blessed. Being chosen and being blessed go together like peanut butter and jelly or like bacon and more bacon. Whenever you see one in scripture you see the other. Abraham is chosen and receives a blessing. The prodigal son is embraced as a son and kissed (blessed) by his father on his return. While working on this message I couldn’t help but picture again and again the image of the father holding and kissing his son repeatedly. Being chosen is the embrace before the blessing. The Father pulls us in close so we can hear the blessing he has for us. You can’t hear a blessing from a distance. The image of a father yelling a blessing from the front porch all the way across the field to the returning son pales in comparison to what we see described. What if the father had thrown his arms around the son and pulled him in close only to say, "I’m not very happy with you." Wouldn’t that have been a hurtful betrayal? Invite the son in close only to deny a blessing and bestow a curse. The fear of this happening is why, I think, people keep God in the distance. Living in this world we are all to familiar with betrayal and the cursing words of others that we can barely comprehend the possibility of a blessing. Much less a blessing from a God that knows what we fight tooth and nail to hide from others. Their gut feeling is that if they are brought close to God that conversation is not going to go well for them. And so they intentionally deny the invitation to be taken, brought close, only to also miss the blessing.

There are also unintentional things that get in the way of hearing God’s blessing. Do we really need to be as busy as we are? Truth is that if something is important we take time for it. The problem then is not that we don’t have time for the important things but that we aren’t treating the important things as importantly as we should. We habitually treat as important and valuable things that in actuality aren’t important or valuable. We run around with flailing limbs all the while missing out on so much. Stop for a second and realize what you are doing and what you are missing. Be still. While driving the 3 hour trip from Holland, Michigan to Dekalb my wife experienced something extremely rare. I was quiet. For those that know me I can be very talkative but when nervous or anxious I go to my default introvert mode. For the most part I think I’m an introvert posing as an extrovert. So here my wife and I were for 3 hours 1 foot apart from each other and my mind was somewhere else entirely. Physically present but mentally absent as I was thinking through what I had prepared and dealing with the anxiety I was feeling about my 10 year break from preaching. While sitting in the Sunday School class and especially while singing during worship I had to fight to be present. Hearing the Father’s blessing requires us to be still and be present.

In Luke 22 it mentions that the passover is the day the lamb was sacrificed. Prior to passover Jesus entered a very festive Jerusalem on what we know of as Palm Sunday. The reason for the city being so jubilant actually had a lot to do with the feast they were celebrating. That Sunday was the day that the lamb was selected and so people were celebratory because a lamb had been selected which would spare the lives of their families. Little did they know that the Lamb had already been selected and had already been blessed.


When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."—Luke 3:21-22

It is here where we see the Son taken (chosen) and blessed by the Father. The blessing did not come from a distance as the Spirit descends upon the Son. The Father closes the gap and says to the Son the very words we need to hear ourselves. Jesus invites us to participate in the very same relationship with the Father that he himself enjoyed. In Christ we are brought close to the Father as his sons and daughters. In Christ we are told the truth about who and whose we are. We are His and we are loved.