In between series, I thought I would post a sermon I gave last year. It is on Mark 4:35-41, an amazingly fearful event in the lives of the disciples.

I hope it encourages you in your own journey through amazingly fearful events.

Friday begins my 11 post theological assessment of Brian McLaren’s new book, A New Kind of Christianity.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Shift Happens:
Introduction
Cistern

A few weeks ago I began a series on the life of Joseph as representative of our own unexpected shifts.

We pick up the story with Joseph at the bottom of a cistern.

I can only imagine what Joseph was thinking: What has just happened? HOW did this happen? WHY is this happening

to me?

What about those dreams, the one’s God Himself gave me? What about his plans to make my life great?

How the hell does this fit in?

Remember that in many ways this was all set in motion because of the dreams God gave teenager Joseph In the ancient near east dreams were a common way of divine communication. Like his brothers (who were pretty ticked at those acts of divine communication, especially how Joseph bragged about those communiqués) Joseph would have understood its prophetic nature, that God was doing something in his life and saying something about him and his life.

So at the beginning of Joseph’s story you have God directing its events. These dreams are from God.

He not only gave literal dreams to Joseph, but also planted in his heart a seed of promise for his life. To this teenager these dreams would have meant 2 things: God has a plan for his life and those plans include some type of leadership.

So at an early age God give Joseph a vision for his life.

Maybe some of us have experienced that same kernel of life-vision. We have had some hopes and dreams for our lives, ones that we were certain were from God, and now our life has shifted.

Now we are sitting at the bottom of a cistern asking, “What is happening to me? What about God’s plans for my life? How will I survive?”

I know I was asking these questions after my shift in DC. I went to Washington with a vision of how God wanted to use me in American politics and culture. I was a bright-eyed, bushied-tailed, freshly graduated conservative Republican Christian who thought he was called to confront culture with Christ. but then

SHIFT!

And at the bottom of my own cistern I had a real hard time seeing how God would fulfill those dreams, let alone survive. Engulfed in the fallout from my unexpected shift, I remember walking outside the Capitol Building and sitting on some benches just outside the House Chambers. It was a nice DC summer evening and I just stared at the Capitol, not so much asking “Why?” but “What?” and “How?” I prayed, “God what have you done, what are you doing in my life? How does this fit in with your plans and how am I going to survive?”

But I did survive. And so did Joseph.

Why? Because “the Lord was with him” and “what was meant for evil, the Lord meant for good.”

Popularity: 5% [?]

I am writing a paper on Pelagius for a ThM Early Church class and reading through a very rare commentary he made on the Book of Romans. I was struck by his commentary on Romans 1:26-27 and homosexuality.

The TNIV reads:

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Now read the commentary Pelagius gives:

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Because of the reasons noted above they were abandoned to their monstrous behavior.

Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

Those who turned against God turned everything on its head: for those who forsook the author of nature also could not keep to the order of nature. ‘The worship of abominable idols,’ [he says,] ‘is the cause, the beginning, and the end of every evil’ (Wisd. 14:27).

In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men,

Lust Once unbridled knows no limit.

and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

So ran the order of nature that those who had forgotten God did not understand themselves well.

Interesting thoughts from a man who was condemned as a heretic for his supposed loose views on sin.

Any thoughts on Pelagius‘ views on homosexuality?

Popularity: 6% [?]

You read that right: Shift Happens.

Sometimes our lives take unexpected “shifts.” Shifts happen to us.

On Monday June 9, 2003 my life hit an unexpected shift.

A year prior I moved to Washington, DC with visions of changing American culture danced through my head. I was a young ambitious conservative with a kick-ass haircut who wanted to leave his mark on the American political landscape for Christ, mainly through subversive legislation. God was good enough to provide a position with a Senator, thus launching my budding career on Capitol Hill.

Up until Monday June 9, 2003 I was trying to move into upper legislative positions to leave such a mark. There were a few opportunities that came and went, but nothing that stuck. In fact, the week prior to Monday June 9, 2003 I was approached about a position where I would have worked on some policy and had face-time with the Senator.

While it seemed like an obvious, no-brainer opportunity, I felt like God didn’t want me to pursue it, that it wasn’t a good fit. That friday before Monday June 9, 2003 I approached my boss who talked with me about the opportunity and turned it down. I said I didn’t think it was the right fit, all the while cursing inside! She understood and said that there might be another opportunity in the press office. She said that a person there was looking to leave and thought it might be a good move for me. I thanked her and said I’d think about it…

Now fast forward to Monday June 9, 2003.

Late in the afternoon that person in the press shop decided to come visit my coworker and me in our office. He came in to grab a Dum-Dum sucker and ended up chatting and watching FoxNews. In the course of the conversation I asked him about his move. It went something like this:

Me: Hey (we’ll call him) Bob, I heard you were looking to leave. What’s the deal?

Bob: Umm…what do you mean?

Me: Well, someone told me you were thinking of moving back to Chicago and was wondering what was up?

Bob: I don’t what you’re talking about. Who told you that?

PAUSE: Now for some reason I thought he thought it was a secret, so I thought telling him this persons name would let him no there was no need to worry. I thought, “Surely if this Asst. Chief of Staff told me about this it wasn’t a big deal!” UNPAUSE

Me: Well (let’s call her) Sherri told me.

Bob: I don’t know what Sherri is talking about. I’m not looking to leave.

AWK-ward

I didn’t know what to say…so I just said, “Sorry!”

He left and I turned to my co-worker, “Good, God what have I just done.”

A bit later my coworker left and returned to let me know Bob and Sherri were in the hallway talking.

Great!

A few minutes before my day ended, Sherri came into my office and asked to see me in the hallway. THAT conversation went something like this:

Sherri: Did you ask Bob if he was looking to leave?

Me: Yes

Sherri: Did you say I told you that?

Me: Yes

Sherri: Why did you say that?!?!?! I told you not to tell anyone (which I did NOT recall at all). He came to me in confidence to say he was looking to leave (which, btw, he did…and was planning to all along!). And I had to lie through my teeth to say I didn’t say anything to you.

And then the words that rocked my world…

Sherri: And you fucked up…and that’s why you’re not going anywhere in this organization.

She stormed off. I sat stunned…at the bottom of a cistern.

I’ve called that experience my Joseph Moment. Like Joseph, a massive shift occurred in my life. You probably remember much of Joseph’s story, especially the beginning that launched his own storied tale. At the beginning of his story, Joseph’s father sends him to the land of Shechem to check on his brothers who were supposed to be looking after the family’s sheep or something. When Joseph arrives they are not there, but there just happens to be someone there who knows where they’ve gone to. Joseph is sent to the land of Dothan, where they just happen to be.

Hi brothers see him coming and are burning with anger and jealousy over Joseph’s dreams (the one’s that predicted Joseph’s leadership position…over them!) and their father’s favoritism (like the “technicolor dream coat”). While most of them want to kill Joseph, another suggests they spare his life and throw him in a cistern that just happens to be nearby.

So they do. They throw Joseph in a cistern. And as Joseph careens into the dusty dirt of the dried-out cistern, Joseph’s life Shifts.

Shift happens.

How many of us here have had Joseph Moments in our own stories? Moments when things absolutely just…shifted unexplainably and you were catapulted into a completely different direction than you could have imagined.

Someone dies.

You lose a job.

An unexpected pregnancy.

A major health problem is diagnosed.

Someone close to you betrays you.

A child falls away from God.

A marriage collapses.

One minute life is fantastic and beautiful. You’re just minding your own business and then

WHAMMO as they say in the comics…an unexpected shift.

This is what happened to me. This is what has happened to all of us. This is what happened to our good friend Joseph, because

shift happens.

As we walk through his story we’ll not only see how he handled his own shifts. We’ll also realize the truth about our own stories.

that the God Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is with us through it all; what others, especially the Evil One, meant for evil, the Lord has meant for good.

Shift happens, but God is with us.

Popularity: 5% [?]

The first miracle of Jesus that is recorded (and presumable the first one of His ministry) occurs at a party. Actually, the setting is more a banquet, which was given in honor of newly wed couple. What is striking about this initial miracle are the clear eschatological implication that would probably have been evident to the hearers of the miracle. At this banquet for a bride and groom wine runs out…but Jesus provides the wine so that the banquet can resume. The prophetic texts of the Hebrew Testament that testified to the coming Messiah all had banquet overtones that described abundance and the flowing of wine. So symbolically this pericope is laden with eschatological overtones.

The second passage is Messianic and in large ways foreshadows the work of the Messiah Jesus on the cross. The original point at which heaven and earth over lapped was the Temple. It was the physical focal point for the Jews. The thought of it being physically destroyed was unthinkable, yet Jesus both foreshadows its actual destruction and spiritual destruction. For through Him, heaven and earth met, and through him all people would find connection and access to God.

Popularity: 2% [?]