Day 25 -- Are We Each Others Keepers?

This one is a stumper for me. I have to be honest: my default position is "live and let live." I find that I'm only willing to say things to people when I'm invited into their lives to do so. If I know I have authority with someone I may assert, as gently as possible, my concern for them and then ask the person how I can help. In my role as pastor I'll call people on behavior that's destructive or cancerous for the body. But I do that because that's my role here...to protect the body from as much harm as possible, and to coach relationships of health that honor and build each other up.

But in general I'm trepidatious about asserting myself into another's sin. Part of it for me (as a Lutheran Christian) is that I'm am starkly aware of just how dirty my own hands are. I hear Jesus saying (interestingly Warren doesn't point this out) take the log out of your own eye before extracting the splinter out of another's. I wonder how that works into this matrix?

I'm reminded of a story about Mahatma Ghandi. I young mother brought her son to him on day and said, "You must tell my son to stop eating candy. He's losing his teeth because they are rotting!" Ghandi responded to the woman, "Bring your son back in two weeks, and I'll instruct him as you've instructed me too." In two weeks the woman returned and Ghandi patiently and kindly chided the boy for his excessive love of sweets and the damage it was doing to his young mouth. A friend who was looking on said to him afterwards, "Why didn't you just tell the boy what you just told him two weeks ago?" Ghandi replied, "Because two weeks I was excessively indulging sweets as well. I couldn't very well tell the boy to stop doing something that I was doing myself now could I?"

I love the integrity of this.

But Warren sounds too much like a busy-body to me, and like he's mandating it. In the body of Christ (which is specifically where he's calling us to hold each other accountable) we DO raise the bar for each other. When we see one member verbally/emotionally abusing another we may confront the abuser privately with their destructive behavior and chasten them to stop and make amends.

But I think that we engage the sin of others with a great deal of self-awareness about our own sin and fallenness...and only seek correction and call for the best from others (as well as ourselves) with the humility that comes from the awareness of the logs that are lodged in our own line of sight.

Then perhaps it might be safe to proceed.

I agree with Warren that loving each other means helping each other avoid the huge pits of life, like unforgiveness, hatred, jeolousy, inappropriate lust, etc., calling us to align ourselves with the world-serving love of Christ. And when the attitude is humility and love...an environment of accountability and correction is a beautiful thing. It is necessary regardless. But love and humility have to drive it.

Just my two cents at this late hour. A blessed rest to you all and a stellar day 25!

Grace and peace!

Pastor Nathan

Day 24 -- Always a White Belt

There are certain things I value in people more than others. Love, absolutely. Gentleness? Yes. Honesty. Of course!

But I think as I do this journey more and more I'm aware that in general there are two sorts of people: those who know it all, and those who are still learning. Personally, I prefer the teachable ones...the ones who don't have it all figured out. God and life can instruct them and they actually learn and grow. And their fruit gets better, and larger, and richer, and more abundant in every season because as they go through life and learn, they prune themselves for growth.

I'm a Judo guy. It's been a long time since I was actually on a mat in a dojo, but I've learned a ton of life lessons in the context of a sweaty gi's (the white pajamas we wear when working out) and physically clashing wills. I remember in my first club, in Tucson, when I was in high school; there was this guy named Kevin Kneafsey. He was an excellent Judo-ka...student of Judo and advanced quickly. What I most admired about him though was that as he advanced, he refused to put on the new colored belts he was handed. Instead, he wore the same ratty, sweat and blood stained white belt he wore night in and out at the dojo.

That belt was a sign for him of his on-going commitment to be a learner...growing in the art of Judo well past himself...constantly striving for a deeper understanding in his body and Spirit of the principles of redirected force in human confrontation.

Jesus valued teachable people as well. One of the purposes of his earthly ministry was to teach and demonstrate the principles of what he called "the kingdom of heaven." He wasn't referring to an afterlife. He was referring to this life and to the shape of love and forgiveness in the communities they create. But to learn Jesus' kingdom, you have to un-learn unforgiveness, hard-heartedness, and so many of the closely held and coveted values of your lives.

When it comes to following Jesus, we will always be white belts. This is ok. If we come at life in general, and Jesus specifically, with the attitude of learning and receiving, chances are we'll walk away transformed. Because no doubt that Jesus is an experience that changes us all; all we know and understand.

May you find your "white-belts" this week, fasten them around your waists, and then ask the Great Teacher to teach you the ways of his life, his death, his resurrection, and his kingdom!

Pastor Nathan

Day 23 -- ENCOURAGE

Friends,

Today's topic mirrors the them I preached on this weekend of "How we help each other grow." I know from the feedback that I've received from many of you about the last two weeks of preaching that it has been connecting at a deep level. The things that seem obvious to us never are...and part of the bless of community is the opportunity to tease these things out so that we might see each other and how it is we flourish in relationships together better.

To briefly touch on the themes this morning, my premise was this: we all have the capacity to tend the garden of human community causing growth in each other. Like a garden that needs proper light, water, fertilizer, and attention, human communities generally and our relationships specifically need things to grow and thrive. Over the weekend I named for of these things.

They are...

• ACCEPTANCE: we not surprisingly come as we are, and a basic human need is that of being accepted as we are. This doesn't mean that we won't change and transform in relationship. Like an almond orchard, people's capacity for fruitfulness increases with maturity.

• ATTENTION: it's a general principle of life that what we give attention to (good and bad) grows and thrives, and what we take our attention away from withers. Like the plants in the Florida room, when we're giving them what they need and TLC, our relationships grow and thrive as do the people in them. Attention...quality time and investment is essential for growing relationships.

• AFFECTION: we won't touch things that disgust us. Somehow, hard wired into us as human beings is the need for affirming touch; the kind that communicates the "acceptance" and "attention" above. It says, "you're valuable" and worth connecting with. A UCLA study conducted under a decade ago discloses that adults need touch just like infants...as many as 8-10 meaningful touches a day. This could be a side ways squeeze from a friend, a kiss from a spouse, a fist bump from a freind, a pat on the shoulder or even a hand shake. All of these things affirm human connectedness and the value and worth of another. Being appropriately affectionate and attentive to each other is essential for thriving human life.

• APPRECIATION: there is nothing so powerful as a heartfelt thank you or statement of gratitude. Expressing appreciation for other human beings powerfully communicates humans worth, and inspires people that there presence in this life makes a difference and genuinely matters. At all three services this weekend as I talked about this point the congregation became strangely quiet. I think perhaps we simply don't have enough of these things in our lives at all. We are each thirsty for the expression of appreciation, and perhaps equally bad at expressing it to others. But like nothing else, appreciation is like sunshine in our lives. When it's presence, we rise to meet it and soak it up, and after we've absorbed it we stand taller, brighter, happier, healthier, and as though we have a renewed sense of purpose and reason for being.

There's quite a bit in all of this to digest. The things that I didn't tease out over the weekend that perhaps I should have is that each of these factors in human growth is grounded in our Holy Scriptures. This stuff isn't pop psychology or Dr. Phil come to church; it's the stuff of faith and life and falls squarely under the purview of the God that created us to thrive, and created us for each other to tend each other in relationships and community so that we really will grown and mature and be genuinely fruitful.

May you be green in your thumbs as you build each other up for faith and life this week.

And just so you know: I deeply, deeply appreciate you all...my new St. Stephen family. God loves you, and I do too!

Pastor Nathan

Day 22 -- Models

My maternal grandfather raised me on stories about his dad. I can't tell you how many trips I went on with him as a kid. He had a ranch in New Mexico...several thousand acres he was developing for sale to Arizonans seeking a private mountain retreat from the heat in a state where only 15% of the land is actually commercial.

We spent countless hours in his pickup truck with 20oz bottles of Dr. Pepper crammed full of peanuts...foaming salt and sweet with the noise of NPR and our conversation. It was magical time.

And he told me stories. His dad, Ernest Snell, was one of those exceptional men who was long on character and incredibly short on vices. Of course it's my granddad who was recounting the stories, and perhaps his memory has reshaped the tales over time to make him look more favorable.

To describe him: when a liquor store tried to rent space in town, he found an alternative business to rent the space (so that the renters would have the income) so that liquor stores would remain someone else's reality.

He was the local water district manager. He read the meters and figured the bills. In La Verne, California, even back in the 40's and 50's, the hispanic population was large and poor. He refused to shut off the water of those who were late or unable to make payments. Instead, he often just paid the bills himself and told the folks that when they could, they could pay him back. If they couldn't, he would just eat it. He felt better knowing that a family would have running water, a necessity for life, because he was able to see to it that it kept running for them.

Then there was the time the new football coach came to town. My grandfather was playing high school ball at the time. It didn't take long for word to get out that the coach's mouth was incredibly foul, and that he was known for berating and shouting curses at the kids in practice and doing the same for opposing teams during the games.

My grandpa remembers the Saturday morning they walked over to the coach's house so that his dad could have the conversation with the coach about his language and demeanor. At the steps of the coach's porch, my granddad remembers Ernest turning to him and saying, "Wait here Galen. I'll be right back." Great-Grandpa knocked on the door and the coach answered it. He asked the coach for a word, and the coach invited him in. It was about 15 minutes before the door opened up and when it did, my grandfather says he was dumbfounded. The two men walked out together laughing and smiling, literally arm in arm. On the way home my granddad asked his dad how it had gone. "It went fine," Ernest smiled, and that's all he ever said about the incident again.

Here's what happened though. Cursing of any variety stopped immediately. It was never heard from the coach again, and was never tolerated from the players. Several weeks later La Verne High was playing a visiting team and the other team's coach was shouting particularly ugly things at the refs and at his players. Grandpa remembers that his coach calmly walked down the field line, stopped the visiting coach dead in his tracks and said calmly but firmly, "We don't use that kind of language on this field." The coach look dumbfounded and shocked, but stopped nonetheless.

Whether these stories are absolutely true or not isn't the point. They were in the ballpark. When my great-grandfather died of a massive heart attack at the age of 65 or 68 (I can't remember), over 2000 people came to his funeral. He'd touched an incredible number of lives.

Ernest Snell's character flowed from his faith. His defiance of the liquor store was a statement of his deeply held belief in temperance and that part of the Christian witness and life meant steering clear of drunkenness. His concern over the least and poorest in his community grew from his belief that his Lord Jesus had said it just as he meant it. "In so far as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it to me." His talk with the coach affirmed his belief that the kids of the community should have models in their elders of the highest character, while also affirming his belief that there was an inherent dignity in the coach that needed to be addressed. So rather than character assassinate him in the community, he went and talked with him directly, affirmed him and invited him into a vision of himself that positioned him to be a true leader and mentor in the community.

Wow.

I don't agree with all of my great-grandfather's positions. But I value his character and the ways in which every day for him was both an opportunity to serve his Lord Jesus and also make the world a genuinely better place. And he did. It was better for his having lived. It was better as he passed.

He was a model, and in so many situations I now face, I hear the stories of his character and they speak loudly to me, not of things celestial, but of things human; love and forgiveness, and faith alive and active. He is a model for me 40 years and three generations after his passing.

This morning I wonder: who are the models in your life who have raised the bar on your sense of your baptismal calling, asking you to step into a greater vision of yourself than you'd imagined? What are the stories that have formed you and given you life and hope for lives lived well?

Today, may you model the light of Christ in your lives.

Pastor Nathan

Day 21 -- STRAIGHT UP

You know, I place a premium on honesty. That's not to say that I always tell the truth. I think that mostly the lies I tell are lies of omission. I don't want to say what I'm really thinking because I don't want to hurt the heart of another. The truth is that there's just an awful lot in life that doesn't need my commentary. So my holding my own council on the hairstyle of another, the placement of a tattoo, or some other sort of inconsequential thing isn't being dishonest. It's just in those sorts of situations my opinion probably wouldn't be edifying or encouraging.

But there are other times and situations that call us to say what we're discerning, even if we're dead wrong. We're a part of a community, and in community as we discern direction and where it is we're going, we need to speak up. Community involves many voices, not just one.

Interestingly, this need flies in the face of what I think is reality. I think there's no premium placed on honesty anymore. We're way more comfortable with the "parking lot" conversations...telling safe people what we really think rather than saying what we think when the situation warrants it.

I mean, think about the people who are pretty much, "straight up." So often they are terrific people with hearts of gold, but because they are honest with their thoughts and feelings they are perceived as "mean spirited," "difficult," "abrasive," or some other nasty adjective. These people are the object of derision for those of us who are civilized.

There's a time to hold your tongue. Music too loud? I can guarantee you there's someone who thinks it's not loud enough. Sermon too long? I can guarantee you that there's someone who wishes that I had gone for another five minutes. Too long on vision and not long enough on details? I can guarantee you there are others who wish we could dream even bigger dreams.

But there's a difference between opinions and the need for "straight up" honesty, the kind that names a broken thing that's breaking community and calls it out. This isn't complaining. It's naming the elephant in the room, owning your own perspective, but stating the thing that's happening, the way a person or community is being destroyed, and asking an individual or organization to sit up and take notice.

This is the stuff of holiness. It's the stuff of St. Paul calling St. Peter on the carpet when he says that the gospel is for everyone, and then treats his own Jewish people with deference. It needed to be named, so St. Paul named it. I'm sure he did it in love. I'm sure he did it for the sake of the community. I'm sure that he did it for the sake of "saving" a brother in Peter who's own witness was hurting not only his own authenticity, but the very witness of the church.

There's a fine line here. "Straight up" honesty needs to be held with humility. None of us has an absolute perspective. Sometimes things that look destructive and wrong to us are actually absolutely right. I know this is hard to believe, but it's true. And "straight up" honesty is never a warrant to hurt or harm another. But Warren is right on this. Honesty is the stuff of light. It creates strength in community. It assures us that we're all working from the same reality. It builds.

If you have someone in your life that has the capacity to be honest, "straight up," thank God for them. Do more than this. Learn from them. And emulate them with a heart of love for all people, and watch light come on all over the place...the kind that builds up and doesn't destroy.

May our lives be filled with light, Christ's light.

Pastor Nathan

Day 20 -- Samsonite: You gotta let it go...

When we journey in community and really begin to work the warp and woof of love, forgiveness, and the lack of these things in our relationships...the cracks begin to show. Our relationships aren't that great. What's more, the amount of baggage that we're all carrying around...the hurts and wounds we are actively "nursing" against one another are simply huge. Resentment, hurt, anger, unforgiveness...all universally human responses to injustices received (real or perceived).

Truth is, we get really attached to our luggage. After awhile we've hauled it around long enough we begin to think our emotional luggage is essential to life...full of the things that we need for daily living. The reality? It's just another 50 extra pounds of weight making it harder to move and maneuver through life, making our hearts work too hard, and bringing on the stress related illnesses associated with too much weight. Am I talking about being overweight or carrying too much luggage? Yes.

Because they are kind of like the same thing.

The thing is, we weren't designed to carry around all that extra luggage. Jesus in his genius understood our propensity for luggage lugging and came to gift us with a way for unloading its power in our lives. The method? It's called forgiveness. In Greek, it means to simply let go. Let it all go.

Because of the ways in which our Samsonite becomes a family heir loom we come to believe we've got to hold onto at all costs, the real act of letting it go can seem well nigh impossible. I suggest some journaling and active visualization...exercises that allow us to diffuse the energy in herent in the luggage for us.

1. Unforgiveness always has a personal focal point. It's directed at somebody. Sitting down with a clean piece of paper, pen/pencil, and some time, and then unloading everything that you have to say to that person can be incredibly cathartic. Write until you don't have anything to write anymore. Get it all out. Say it all like you want to say it. Then read it out loud and listen to yourself in your unforgiveness. Hear it, feel it, and note the energy it's taking from your life. Then note something else. The issue at the core of the problem? It's you. The person you are angry at or hurt by isn't asking you to hold onto this. They aren't forcing you to keep this festering wound open and alive and infected. You are. Own this, sense it, and acknowledge it. Because it's yours, you have power of it. Then do yourself a favor. DO NOT send the letter to the person it is addressed to. Instead, in a a fire safe environment, burn the letter and give the energy and hurt and unforgiveness to God and ask him to deal with and heal the hurt in your heart. Burn the letter up, and as it burns, let the hurt go. You've had your say. It's your hurt. Release it, and move on.

If you are actively hurting over something, address it. Stop giving another ounce of energy to it. Unforgiveness takes actively nursed energy to maintain. It's exhausting. It steals life. And it never punishes the person it's intended for like we intend it for them. So give it up. Confront it, name it, own it, say/write what you need to say, and then burn the hurts up, releasing them to God.

When our hands are full of the past and the pain of the past, we are simply unable to reach out and hold the "present" that God has for us now and the future he's calling us into. Get your hands empty Saints. God needs you open and empty so that he can fill you with the stuff of life for the task of life, not the tasks of death.

Let it go.

Just let it go.

Praying a day of release for you all, in the name of Jesus Christ, the one who let our sin go that we might be filled with his life.

Pastor Nathan

Day 19 -- Be Big

Hopefully you read Warren's treatise for today on "Getting along." There's a lot of stuff worth chewing on in our human relationships. On balance, I think he does a fine job.

However, the angle I want to comment on is his point to ponder at the end of today's reflection. He writes: "Go for the love, not the win."

I was on a church staff once when four of our rostered staff people were behaving really badly. I'm speaking about two pastors and two associates in ministry. There's more to the story. They felt threatened by new directions the church and leadership were taking and decided to respond not by embracing the new day, but by taking on an entrenched attitude and by digging in. They began a subsurface phone-a-thon and email campaign in the church to character assassinate our lead pastor, the staff that stood with the mission and new day of the church, and the lay leadership that comprised the council and personnel teams at the time.

They got really ugly. I was a pastoral resident at the time and was the recipient of some of the character assassination myself because I was identified as being aligned with our lead pastor. I remember talking with my lead about the situation over coffee at Starbuck's there in Littleton one crisp mountain morning. I was furious at the lies and untruths that were being thrown around, and even angrier that we were having to invest so much energy simply into managing conflict that the mission of the church seemed to be suffering. I wanted to mount a campaign of defense, wipe away the smears, and combat the ugly aspersions being hurled our way.

Rick was supernaturally calm in the midst of all of this. And he smiled at my rant. I know that the journey of those days was hard on him and took it's toll. But on this morning he was as clear and crisp as the air around us. I said to him, "Well, what are we going to do?"

His response? "Well Sunshine, (that was his nickname for me...but if y'all use it, just remember that it's PASTOR Sunshine now!!!! LOL), we're gonna 'be big,' just like my momma told me to be when it came to handling the bullies in the school yard."

"What?" I said incredulous.

"Be big. Be magnanimous. Folks when they're angry and reactive want you to get dirty with them, and that never, ever helps. When the dirt starts flying, you just gotta be big. That's it. Be honest, be truthful, stand tall, and don't get ugly. All the character assassinations will work themselves out. Folks will figure it out in the end. Just be big."

You know he was right? Rick pulled it off. Within a year, most of the folks who had been swayed by the campaign of ugliness had figured it out and come around. Those who couldn't figure it out left which was fine because they really needed to. (There weren't many. Abiding Hope was too healthy and their history with Rick too solid. Most of the congregation knew his heart and character deeply and new the things that were being leveled at him, his staff, and leadership in the congregation were all things that represented those who were running the campaign of ugliness.)

In the end, I realized that Rick was right. If he'd gotten dirty too it would have obscured the truth and would have validated the lies that were being thrown his way. But he didn't validate those lies and because he stood tall (and the rest of us figured out how to do that as well) it was much easier for people to sort the truth from the untruth.

Here's my point. Getting along is an ideal. But you're always going to have unhealthy folks in the body of Christ, in your work places, and in your families, who just want to spread their ugliness on everyone else. Their insides are dirty and they're convinced the world isn't right unless everyone else is dirty too.

And there's just one response...one thing that works, apart from establishing clear boundaries with these ornery people. Be big. Personally, I just think that's Rick Barger's momma's way of saying what Warren is saying: "Go for the love, not the win."

Rick could have gone for the win in the situation with the four. He would have won too. But at the same time, he would have lost...face and credibility with a congregation to whom he was pledged to model Christ like love.

In that situation, like all situations, Love Wins. It always does.

So today, as you engage your community, Be Big. Go for the love, not the win, and discover that this makes you AND your community a winner.

Your tired pastor,

Pastor Nathan

Day 18 -- Authentic Community

"God enables us to love the fear out of one another." -- Rick Warren

I think it was psychiatrist M. Scott Peck (author of The Road Less Traveled and People of the Lie) who talked about the movement from pseudo-community into authentic community. He insisted that rarely in human community do human beings ever move past pseudo-community because the risk of the vulnerability inherent in radical authenticity is too great.

But personally, I long for this sort of community...the kind that loves and accepts us where we're at...but lets us work out the stuff of being human and that catalyzes transformation in our lives and relationships.

Warren writes today, "We give to one another the same uncommon safety Christ gives us--to be real, to be sad, to be messed up and confused, yet, to be loved. God challenges us to create a community where we love like our lives depend upon it (1 Peter 1:22, Msg) and where we can each 'live and move and have our being' "(Acts 17:28, NIV).

My prayer for us today, is that God would indwell us in such a way that we really ARE empowered to love the fear out of each other. Wow. That would be powerful.

"Lord God, bring us your 'go to the cross--loved us too much to stay dead' sort of love that we might love each other out of our fear and solitude into the fullness of the Kingdom of God today. Amen"

Pastor Nathan

Day 17 -- R E S P E C T

This is a hard one. Respect. How often are we confronted with people, usually in authority, that we have no respect for. But because of their position of power or authority, we have to be at least "decent" around them.

Or how about the family member that takes a position on politics that we have no respect for. Or the person in church who dresses "inappropriately."

This is where we have to make the decision at some point to simply be "principled" people. Principles are characteristics you live by regardless of the circumstances. Principles with regard to people are decisions about how you will treat them regardless of their demeanor or behavior towards you. For example, the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," is a principle.

Actually, it's a good one, grounded in Jesus Great Commandment itself: Love your neighbor as yourself.

I don't know many people who when they are having a bad day and aren't engaging their relationships all that well still don't want to be treated with dignity and respect. Treating each other with dignity and respect affirms the essential humanity we have in each other, and acknowledges that many of us have bad days. Heck, many of us have bad years. The person that's not treating you or others well might be having that sort of year. In fact, your respect may be just what's needed to help the person move out of their funk.

I know when I have particularly nasty moments, the kindness of another and their non-anxiety can act as a pretty powerful mirror. When I see myself being ugly reflected back to me by them...I quickly modify my behavior as I become self-aware...aware of how I'm behaving and looking.

Respect. It's not just a virtue. It's a decision to seek love and value in all people, even the ornery ones.

Today, may your day be filled with RESPECT...both for you from others, and whether you're getting it from others or not, may it be found in you.

Peace and blessings from the Life Enrichment Center in Leesburg.

Pastor Nathan

Day 16 -- Loving into the Fray

If you could all see me now, you'd be laughing at me. This late afternoon I ran off to Leesburg where the Synod's annual conference on ministry is being held at the Methodist Retreat Center. There's no wireless in our rooms, so I'm sitting in the front seat of the car outside of the now locked public building that radiates the local access point.

The ends I have reach for to simply blog. Oh my! You are all worth it! You should know I feel that way about you.

In this weekend's sermon I talked about the nature of anxiety...the way it tends to shut down our higher capacities for thinking and problem solving and forces us into binary thinking where everything is black and white, in or out, his side/her side, fight or flight. The fight or flight option is interesting in particular to me, and I want to work at it a bit more than I did in my sermon. I maintained this weekend that we more often choose running from each other in conflict than fighting because from an evolutionary standpoint, the cost of fighting can be so much higher. In a real life or death situation, you could actually die. You could also be so seriously wounded that you are maimed for life and the things you do now and take for granted might become so much more difficult.

Most of us aren't in life or death situations when we're running from each other. Instead we're fleeing perceived emotional duress and harm...choosing the options of ongoing resentful and broken relationships, a slow sort of poison, over the fast potential resolution (or harm) that comes with confronting the issues and people in our lives that need us to stand face to face with them.

I was thinking about this dynamic in conjunction with the sort of love we're called to in Jesus' Great Commandment. It's hallmark is "commitment." To the best of it's ability, it hangs in there. It doesn't run. It refuses to run.

It flat out absolutely refuses to run.

Which brings me to a fundamental and key implication for love. Love NEVER guarantees that there won't be hurt in our lives. No. Love calls us into relationship, into the fray, and asks us to be vulnerable. Love asks us to engage the "other," in full sight and belief in the other's value and worth, even when they aren't demonstrating it. It forces you to be open to whatever the "other" might bring, even if they are harboring knives, bombs, or just the sorts of words that break hearts.

Love. We don't practice it with each other, because the perceived cost is too high. There's to much to lose, to much potential hurt. And so we hide from each other.

We hide.

But Jesus didn't. His commitment was too wide, and too deep; his love so powerful it reached clear through the death his love made him vulnerable to, and into the resurrection itself. All because he was committed to YOU.

I wonder if today, Jesus might not be asking us again, to open ourselves up to love, and all of its potential for beauty as well as pain, and to trust him and his resurrection, that through him, come what may, there will be only ultimately life for us if we love like that.

My prayer for you today is one for commitment; that you would love vulnerably and would trust the rest to the God in Jesus who raises even the dead.

God loves you, and I do too...

Pastor Nathan

Day 15 -- Admitting Our Need for Jesus

Today's theme in our 40 Days Journey is "Admitting Our Need for Each Other." I think Warren nails this well. In a culture of self-reliance and radical individualism, we tend towards self-isolation where loneliness becomes piqued, and at times personal darkness abounds.

The problem with isolation is that in the darkness of loneliness, dark things grow.

As one wise person said, "There's no greater disinfectant than sunshine."

We need each other. It's true. Community has the power to cast away darkness. But even more so, we need Jesus...the living community of God unleashed in the dark corners of our lives...his power of light cleansing our dark places.

This skit is powerful. Called the "Lifehouse Everything Skit," it made its debut at a youth conference and has spread like wildfire ever since.

Perhaps the teenage angst and passion and dark tendencies will be too far from you to relate. But I suspect that even as the forces shift and change, the struggles never do.

At the end of the day we still need "Him."

We need him because his community is light, and his light is disinfecting.

Praying light (Jesus) for your week...and the deep community of Jesus and each other.

Pastor Nathn

Day 14 -- Angels/Messengers for Jesus

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word and deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." -- Colossians 3:12-17

I remember learning that the word we translate as "angel" in English, in the original Koine Greek (common Greek of Jesus' day) simply meant "messenger." Sure, that takes some of the supernatural spin off of "angel" talk...but don't worry. If you're really attached to that stuff, you can have it. The "messengers" that heralded Jesus' resurrection were invariably in Purex Ultra Whitening Bleach white clothing.

But I think what's important...and the thing that Warren is driving at, is that Jesus' messengers aren't generally supernatural. Rather, they are human; they are you and I.

Now perhaps you've figured it out already...this guys clothes don't sparkle. Someday they will...but not right now. But that doesn't let me off the hook. I'm a regular guy with a supernatural job, the one of being a herald for the God that raises the dead.

The work is daunting and it's big. That's why it's a really good thing that Jesus promises us that as we proclaim him to the world we will NEVER, EVER, EVER do it alone. His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the death/resurrection, will be with us as we proclaim Jesus with full surround sound/sight audio/visual: we are empowered to speak his truth in both word and actions.

In the meantime...it might be helpful to know that you have a little of the supernatural in you afterall. Lot's of Jesus, some Holy Spirit, and you've got the makings of an angel.

Yes. I'm talking about you!

Hope your weekend is full of life giving witnessing...and a legion of angels.

Pastor Nathan

Day 13 -- Bonus: Cardboard Testimonies

Lutherans have never been good about the conversation of Transformation. This is not native DNA though. Luther was grounded in Jesus. We are grounded in Jesus. And if we're grounded in Jesus, then transformation will always be a part of our identity...the mighty acts of God manifest in our lives.

What's your testimony? I'll share mine in the days ahead...

May your day be God's day, and may it be beautiful...

Pastor Nathan

Day 13 -- Transformation

Scripture is full of powerful juxtapositions. There's the Law...that which convicts us not of our perfection but of our lack as we seek to live into the commands of God. Then there's the Gospel...the reality that the Law that is demanded isn't satisfied by you or I, but by Jesus and his work of reconciling the World to himself in the cross and resurrection.

Then there's the determinism of Scripture...the sense that God begins creation with a vector and that somehow, though the target seems to be a moving one, the outcome to this whole mess is in God's sight, and in the cross and resurrection a done deal...not something that will have to be agonized over. And yet, somehow in the predestination of God's plan, there is the choice, imperfect and flawed and marred by sin, to follow Jesus into this future, not kicking and screaming, but under whatever personal volition we can muster.

And then there's this other dichotomy: that of God's complete acceptance of us, and his simultaneous transformation of us. These two things seem to stand in stark contrast. If we're God's children and his love for us is complete, just as we are, why would there be need for transformation? And if there's a need for transformation...what then is God really loving?

Let me come at this whole dichotomy sideways. You know, the interesting thing about the creation accounts in Genesis is that the Rabbi's always understood creation to be an ongoing thing. Even with the apparently discreet six days of work and the seventh day of rest...there's a sense in which the world is still in process...history and the world are unfolding towards something. History is NOT in fact circular. It IS cyclical...but it has direction which leaves us not with a circle but a spiral that turns and that is always driving towards something.

I think this is how it works with us. We're God's workmanship. He made us. And at the same time, none of us is a finished masterpiece yet. Which is what makes it such a profound thing when the master gets a hold of us. We're his work...and he's still working.

I think that when you come at acceptance and transformation in this light...it's possible to see them not as competing priorities...but as the process of creation in us and for us, for the purposes of God. They go together. They need each other.

A potter sits at his wheel and with wet hands feels the nature of the clay...knows its characteristics, its possibilities, its very life -- and in the midst of that knowing LOVES it. And as he loves it, he brings out in the clay a shape and beauty that is nothing short of divine.

God loves you. And because of this, don't be surprised if he transforms and changes you. He's the potter. You're the clay. You're God's creation in process.

Perhaps you are like me: you can't wait to see today what he will create...

Day 12 -- The Fragrance of the Resurrection...

"Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly."
Romans 12:16

I am a part of a an advanced church leadership coaching network run by a United Methodist pastor named Bill Easum. He moved my cheese recently when he commented on our list serve that if you want to be effective in ministry today, "...you need to be spending at least 15% of your time in coffee shops and other public places meeting and building relationships with non-Christians."

I know I don't get that much time in. But when Starbuck's is in the budget, I walk in in a different way. I'm starting to take the time to get to know the regulars behind the counter by name, ask them how their day is going (genuinely), and then offer genuine and authentic encouragment. If I get a chance, I'll ask deeper questions, learning who they are and what they are passionate about. The cool thing? They smile when they see me now. Not the fake smile of the person behind the counter who's paid to take your order, but the smile of someone greeting someone who is familiar and who they believe values them. What's even cooler? They're starting to ask questions back. That's really cool. And it's a sign...of relationship.

I took stock today of how many friends I have outside of my Christian faith. It's less than a handful off people. What's more, when I asked myself how many of them I actually hang out with, the answer was zero.

If my baptismal vocation is to be salt and light in this world, not selling people Jesus but letting them in on the God in Jesus who has their backs...the only God that raises the dead, then I'm not doing a very good job.

The question for me at the end of this life isn't going to be, "How many of the Saints thought you were a great pastor?" The question will be, "How many people experienced the transforming power of God's kingdom because when you walked by, they caught the fragrance of the resurrection?"

Now THAT'S the question. What I do know is this: the gym and Starbuck's are now wonderful opportunities for blessing. And me? I'm getting more fragrant by the day.

How about you?

Day 11 -- The Johari Window: Windows of Acceptance

Named for its creators, Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham, the Johari Window is a model for understanding the processes of human interaction. The model describes four quadrants or windows. Imagine if you weill a four paned window.

In the upper left hand corner there is the "open" window which is comprised of things that I know about myself and you know about me. This is the public windw. Examples would include titles, skin color, education, relationship status, gender, etc.

Next to it in the upper right hand corner is the "blind" window and it comprises everything that others know about me, but that I am not aware of. This could be anything from personal subconscious behavioral ticks to an open fly.

In the bottom left hand corner there is the "hidden" window. This window encompasses everything that I know about myself but that others do not. This could be anything from my favorite undisclosed ice cream flavor to very personal family history.

The last window, the bottom right hand window, is called the "unknown" window, and comprises all those things about myself that neither I nor anyone else knows. They may be things that may come to be discovered in conversation, reflrection, etc., but these things are neither immediately apparent to either myself nor any one else.

Perhaps the greatest insight of this model is that it describes the limitations of our knowledge about ourselves, others knowledge about ourselves, and our knowledge about others. Though we might like to think our awareness is absolute...when you dig down there's just a boat load that's not readily apparent.

This is unsettling. We human beings are both light and dark, beautiful and ugly. In each of us you'll find the range of the best things to be found in humanity as well as the worst.

But it's in the midst of our own sense of being "flawed" that things get really out of kilter. How many things about yourself are you unsatisfied with? Your hips, the lines on your face, the size of your gut, your inability to perform certain job tasks with competence, or your inability to connect with certain human beings that are important to you? My guess is that each of us has a laundary list of things that if we could rub the magic lamp and make them go away, we would.

Let me let you in on a personal hunch: people who have a problem accepting themselves have problems accepting others. It's just the way it works. The more unaware we are of our own unseen personal judgments, the more life acts like a mirror reflecting us back at ourselves...a ready made mirror that would reveal so much about who we are if we'd just get up the courage to take a look.

In the midst of all of this unacceptance, we project on to the universe and especially on to God our own sense of judgment and then have a hard time imagining a Deity that might just love us exactly as we are.

Acceptance. Total, unconditional, and powerfully transformational.

This is what the author of Ephesians has to say about this whole dynamic: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10

You are God's perfect workmanship. Accept it. Not even the thrall of sin can conceal the beauty that you are in Christ Jesus. God sees it. And because he sees it, he will never leave you, never forsake you, never let you go. He won't let you go, and he won't let your neighbor go.

This is the basis of acceptance, both for you, and for the world entire.

My prayer for you today: that when you look in the mirror you might see the beauty that God sees. And that when you look at each other, that again you might see the beauty that God sees.

May your day be beautiful...

Pastor Nathan

Day 10 -- The Challenge of Hospitality

The story is told in Genesis about how three strangers come to Abraham and his nomadic home in the middle of the desert. Abraham offers them hospitality and bids them stay and be refreshed. What the story doesn't tell you at the outset is that he was entertaining angels unaware. In a foreshadowing of the Trinity, the angels represent three messengers from God who come to promise Abraham blessing ostensibly because of his insistent hospitality. It's out of this conversation that Abraham and Sarah have the promise of a son in Isaac.

The key piece of the conversation? Hospitality.

I love how Warren frames this in Day 10. At the end of his devotion he writes: "In Webster's Dictionary, the definition for hospitable is wedged between the word 'hospice,' which is a shelter, and the word 'hospital,' which is a place for healing. Ultimately, this is what we offer when we open our home in the true spirit of hospitality: we offer shelter; we offer healing."

For some, hospitality is a native disposition. For others, you just hope that sometime in their lives it gets learned. I remember a trip that Erin and I and the boys took into the mountains of West Virginia to visit a clergy couple that are dear friends of ours. We had the privilege of worshiping with them in one of their parishes (between them they serve four rural churches). Though it was terrific to be worshiping in their context, my most poignant memory of the experience was our family taking a seat in one of the church's pews. As we sat there a woman walked in who came and stood in front of us and literally glared at us. She then proceeded to sit in the pew behind us, and I have to tell you, I felt her staring holes in the back of our heads the whole service long. Afterwards we asked our friends what the issue was. Their response? "Oh, don't worry about her. You were just sitting where she normally sits. It was good for her to be forced to move."

I remember thinking that it's no wonder our churches aren't growing. This is the face of our Christianity. It's not a hospitable face. It's an inhospitable face.

Take this example from Dear Abby in last week's paper. The inquirer writes:

Dear Abby: I am writing about a change I have seen in church. I accept the loud guitar music and informal settings, although I do miss the traditional hymns and formal altars. What I cannot get used to is he forced "friendly" greeting and handshaking. I attend church meditate and to worship with my family. I do not got to sake hands with strangers and give them a greeting dictated by a pastor. I like people. I am naturally caring, outgoing and friendly. However, I believe that a greeting or handshake should come from my own heart. I have mentioned this to friends and family from all faiths, ages, and walks of life. None of them like this scheduled "greeting" either. Many say they head for the restroom at that time, turn their backs or just shake hands with the people they came with, come to church late to avoid it, or don't come at all. Others feel the practice is unsanitary. I suggest that the church leaders take an anonymous poll and ask how many in their congregations agree with me. What do you think, Abby? --MINISTER'S DAUGHTER

Dear Daughter: Thank you for asking my opinion. Here it is: Something is wrong in our fragmented society if, for one moment in a house of God, people cannot find it in their hearts to reach out and make sure that everyone feels included and welcome. And for those who fear it is unsanitary--bring small bottles of hand sanitizer.

"The Orlando Sentinel, Sunday, September 7, 2008"

Is it any wonder that those who don't find a home in the church CAN'T find a home in the church?

Thank God that this would never happen at St. Stephen.

May you all ponder God's heart of hospitality for the foreigner and the neighbor this week.

Peace unto your day...

Pastor Nathan

Day 9 -- Snowflakes

I think I shared with you all in my first sermon of this series Rick Warren's snowflake illustration. He points out how each of these fragile delicate constructions...each absolutely unique and so temporary, when placed with other snowflakes becomes a force to be reckoned with. When together, they have the power to stop traffic!

This weekend, I preached about Jesus' vision for human community and specifically the church...that our buzz on the street not be one of division and strife, but one of love. In Paul's first and second chapters of his letter to the church at Phillipi, he challenges the church to be known for its unity and its love.

We all know we've got totally different opinions on everything. Division for us...well it's an easy thing. But like the snowflakes, we are so much better together.

This is the power of love. It creates unity not grounded in doctrines that compete and fight for primacy and often demand the death of another ideology (and sometime people). It submits to one another and reaches past boundaries and barriers and seeks out what is broken, lost, disturbed, or unreconciled.

This is our holy work Church...the vocation to love given to us in Jesus.

I look forward to seeing you all this week working at the task of loving God, neighbor, and enemy as you live your faith to Jesus.

Blessings to you on this DAY 9!

Pastor Nathan

Day 8 -- The Power We Have to Effect the Lives of Others with Grace

During my internship and residency, my supervising pastor would chide me, "Sunshine (that was his nickname for me)! How many souls you saved today???"

This was his code language for, "Are you being productive? Is God's kingdom better for your presence on this planet today? Is what you are doing mattering for the world around you?"

Warren asks a similar question for the day. He puts it like this: "Will anybody be in heaven because of you?"

Personally, I want you all to wrestle with a different question. Biblically, being saved IS NOT going to heaven. Rather, in the New Testament, salvation is knowing Jesus. So I think the real question, the money question, is "Will anybody KNOW Jesus because of you?"

Well, WILL anyone know Jesus because of you?

Day 7 -- Love: The Central Mystery of Our Faith

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." --Jesus (John 13:34-35)

The earliest church was known by its capacity for love. It's repatation, far from bad, was it was full of those "who love one another." Sit and meditate on that awhile. Think about the buzz around that. They weren't defined by a book, a doctrine, a building, a pope, a pastor, a deacon, or a worship style. They weren't defined by who was included or excluded. They were known for their love.

Rick Warren did a home run job with this week's talk as he pulled apart 1 Corinthians 13, St. Paul's chapter on the radical power and centrality of love in our lives as Christians and as Christian community. I like how Rick puts it:

He says, "If I don't live a life of love...

Nothing I say will matter.
Nothing I know will matter.
Nothing I believe will matter.
Nothing I give will matter.
Nothing I accomplish will matter."

Do you know? I only have 32 years of life under my belt. But I KNOW this; he's right. For all of the wordy people I know, for all the knowledgeable people I know, for all of the deeply believing people I know, for all of the tremendously giving people I know, and for all of the successful people I know, the ones that have impacted me the most are those who radiate a passionate go to the wall love for people. These people, more than any others, have marked me in a holy way. These people more than any others, call out the absolute best in me. These people more than any others raise the bar for me in my capacity to love, to hope, to forgive, and to seek forgiveness.
When I am around people like this, my capacity for God community increases astronomically.

And perhaps it does so for you as well.

Because love, it changes things. It changes people. It transforms life. It transforms community. It constructs a beauty that reflects the heart and face of God -- a heart and face that you and I reflect when we love each other.

From the Swenson-Reinhold den to your home or workplace...wishing Christ's deep and passionate love for you all...that you would know it deep inside your marrow...and that it would become a contagious and transforming force in your lives.

God loves you, and I do too.

Pastor Nathan

Day 6 -- Bonus: Longing for the Mountain - "Where the Streets Have No Name"

I actually blog these a day ahead of time. So I just wrote day 6 on day 5. My clock hasn't struck midnight yet...and I'm mindful that we're on the 7th Anniversary of 9/11.

The post for today is grounded in Isaiah's vision for reconciled creation, where the warring nations of the world flow to God and his feasst of love and reconcilationa...and where the disparate tribes of humanity are knit into the vision of a new heaven and a new earth.

Of all days, Isaiah's vision is today most poignant. In the mdist of our tragedies, nationally, internationally, personally, we long -- yearn even -- for that place "high on a desert plane, where the streets have no name."

As I meditated on the theme for the day, that of communities of love grounded in an eternal vision, this song came to mind. So whether you like the band U2 or not (they happen to be my favorite) listen to the words, and experience the images in the midst of this days tragedy, and hear the longing for Isaiah's mountain.

The words for the song are printed below. Peace!

I want to run
I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls
That hold me inside
I want to reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name

I want to feel sunlight on my face
I see the dust cloud disappear
Without a trace
I want to take shelter from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name

Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
We're still building
Then burning down love
Burning down love
And when I go there
I go there with you
It's all I can do

The city's aflood
And our love turns to rust
We're beaten and blown by the wind
Trampled in dust
I'll show you a place
High on a desert plain
Where the streets have no name

Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
We're still building
Then burning down love
Burning down love
And when I go there
I go there with you
It's all I can do
Our love turns to rust
We're beaten and blown by the wind
Blown by the wind
Oh, and I see love
See our love turn to rust
We're beaten and blown by the wind
Blown by the wind
Oh, when I go there
I go there with you
It's all I can do

Day 6 -- It IS Practice for Eternity

"On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, 'Behold this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.'" Isaiah 25:6-9

Love and forgiveness. Sure. God in Jesus commands us to these things. But do you know that there is a logic to it...a relational rationale that makes sense long term? If the nature of God is love, and that love undergirds all the created order, and if that love is drawing us to a single inexorable conclusion, that will ABOUND in love, then paying attention to it now makes absolute sense.

In Isaiah's vision for the end of this world, and the beginning of God's new creation, all the nations of the world are drawn to God's holy mountain...the physical symbol of God's earthly power and presence where there will be FEAST that is unsurpassed in all of history. This FEAST is important. In the ancient mideaster cultures that surrounded the author and the cultural imagery that shaped how they saw and interacted with the world, the table and the breaking of bread was a sign of shalom, of peace between neighbors, even if they be strangers. When enemies broke bread together they became family. When bread was broken between conflicted clans, a new truce and peace were struck.

The table, biblically, is a SIGN of God's love and forgiveness. It is how you and I interact with God's shalom for creation. This is why we do communion on a weekly basis. It's not because we individually need forgiveness. It's because we as God's people need to be reminded that the outcome of our broken world IS NOT a nuclear holocaust, but a world reconciled in peace and forgiveness, where the forces of death and shame will no longer have the last word.

So we forgive today, and we love today because it matters. It matters for our relationships and our community today. And it matters for our relationships and our community in eternity. The enemies that we have? We will be breaking bread with them on that holy mountain. The death we fear? It will be swallowed up for them just as surely as it will be swallowed up for you or me.

It turns out that our God really IS in the business of restoration. Which is just another way of saying that he's in the business of love.

And you and I are his people...formed in community by the love of his son Jesus in a cross and alkali tomb.

Today, may you find the power of Christ's love flowing through you and into your relationships and world!

Pastor Nathan

Day 5 -- Faith Family: It's Caught, Not Taught

"And his mother and brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him (Jesus) and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, 'Your mother and and your brothers are outside, seeking you.' And he answered them, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother." Mark 3:31-35

Family is complicated. Family is reeeeeeaaallllyyyyy complicated. It's complicated because it involves broken, sinful, self-centered human beings who don't own relationship owners manuals or other sorts of guidance for the difficulties of human communication and relationship. And yet it is so necessary because it gives us practice in the "choice" of love.

Church family does this for us too. I tell the parents of the children I baptize that their parental vocation is to hold their child in a holy trust, raising the child not as their own, but as God's. In waters of baptism, in the following of Jesus, in the journey of his kingdom mission, we are invited into a new family...new relationships that form us not as Swedish Americans, a midwestern farm family, or a privileged family from the upper East side. No, this family will have characteristics that reflect the ethics of God's kingdom--his never failing love for humanity, his unilateral decision FOR us, his insistence that forgiveness be central in our relationships, that love for neighbor (and ENEMY) might abound.

Like learning to handle a shovel, drive a combine at harvest, or care for the cattle on the family farm, the stuff above isn't necessarily taught; rather, these things are caught. They're caught while we participate in what the family is doing, in where the family is going, and in the day to day work of the life of the family. They are caught in relationship, and conversation, in modeling what works and what doesn't...and everyone learns and grows together.

This is why Christian community, and our deep openness to it is essential to the life of discipleship. In Jesus we become a part of a new family and a new body. It's values, priorities, and hopes will often seem foreign to us...but as we spend time with the family we learn to see and think and dream in new ways.

My prayer for all of you is that as you journey in your small groups over this next six weeks, that you might discover that deep, authentic, real community is like pure oxygen for the soul. It builds and supports life, and encourages ever greater devotion to the source of all life -- Jesus.

Blessings on you all as you gather this first week in your small groups. May you find deeper community and greater life in your "families!"

Pastor Nathan

Day 4 -- The Proof is in God: NOT us...

Rick Warren insists that love, how it is we love each other, is proof of our salvation. This is where I as a Lutheran Christian part company with this brother in Christ, a Southern Baptist. As if working towards love and contriving it in our lives could rescue us from the pit of self (sin) that rests at the core of each of us. Of course Rick bases what he says on a single verse, 1 John 3:14. But if you go back to the beginning of this particular chapter, this is what the author of 1 John has to say.

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are."

Our identity as God's children is grounded in his "election" of us...his insistent, ongoing, never-failing love for us. This is then the foundation of the work of our salvation, a thing accomplished not by our capacity to love God or each other...but the demonstration of GOD'S capacity to love us through a cross and empty tomb, DESPITE our inability to love God or each other.

When we choose war, God still chooses us.

When we choose hate, God still chooses us.

When we choose despair, God still chooses us.

When we choose our own self-centered needs over God and neighbor, God still chooses us.

This is the Gospel: "God chooses us. God will ALWAYS choose us, because God will unfailingly always love us."

As we live our lives not getting the beauty and power of this, God will still continue to give his life for us, to us, freely, abundantly, ALWAYS. As I say at the end of the communion liturgy...God's gifts are FREE!

And it's from these free gifts of grace...the freely given love and life of God for the very world that he created, that begins to altar and change our hearts and consciousness, sanctifying us by renewing our minds so that they will come to reflect the mind of Christ.

Which is another way of saying that as our lives increasingly flow from God's grace and life, we increasingly love each other as God loves us. So that even our capacity to love begins, and ends, in God, and not ourselves.

As St. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, "For by grace you have been save through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Friend, you ARE God's workmanship, a creation of his grace and love. If today you find the capacity to love flowing out of you, it is because God created it in you. And you may, if you would like, pray for an even deeper connection with and expression of the love that formed you in the mind and heart of God, that the very expression of your life might manifest the glory of the God that made you.

Today, I pray for your formation in love. That you would know how deeply and powerfully the God revealed to us in Jesus loves you, and that you would know that love in your expression of it in the community that holds you.

Blessings through Christ, who has raised us all in his own resurrection.

Pastor Nathan

Day 3 -- Bonus Blog: Sara Groves and "Add to the Beauty"

Friends,

Just thought it would be cool for you to watch/hear the song I referenced in the Day 3 Blog. Blessings and the love of Christ on you!

Pastor Nathan

Day 3 -- Extravagant, Exhorbatant, Overflowing Love

"Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and annointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, 'Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?' This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. Jesus said, 'Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me." John 11 and 12 (RSV)

It was philosopher Rene Descartes who made the statement, "I think therefore I am." Though profound, the statement betrays a deeply isolationist and individualistic bent. In light of the God who creates our human community in the likeness of the God who is "community," I wonder if the key philosophical statement of human being shouldn't be, "I love therefore I am."

Warren's assertion today is that we actually love God by loving each other. I think he's nailed it. Obviously there's biblical support for this. Jesus' distillation of the commandments to "love God with the entirety of who you are," and "love your neighbor as yourself," are as Jesus puts it, "alike." Loving God and loving neighbor are acts that are fundamentally intertwined. The mystery of our communion with God and with each other is that we can't really do one without the other.

And at the end of the day, loving itself is not a fickle emotion -- a fleeting feeling. It's a choice. A decision to "add to the beauty" of another's life, even when the existance of the other looks utterly ugly. But in this way, in the extravagant, exhorbatant, overflowing ACT of love we choose to affirm God's most fundamental affirmation of his creation: that it's good. That it's beautiful, not because of anything it does, but simply because God made it and he said that it was good.

Sara Groves sings in her song "Add to the Beautfy":

It comes in loving community
It comes in helping a soul find its worth.

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces,
calling out the best of who we are....

I want to add to the beauty
to tell a better story
shine in the light
that's burning up inside.

My prayer for you today is that you will "add to the beautfy" of the life you live with the quality of love you choose for those around you. My you find the extravagant love of Mary as you journey through this day...the Lord's day.

Pastor Nathan

Day 2 -- LOVE: It's a choice

So much of what's good and right in me is the result of those people God has placed in my life to love me. I wouldn't be a pastor if my wife Erin hadn't given me the gift of her own authentic faith when I had none of my own. I wouldn't know the bedrock principles of leadership if God hadn't placed a mentor in my life, half way through my seminary training, who saw great potential in me and gave me the gift of doing anything BUT setting the bar too low. I"m a pretty rough piece of turquoise most of the time. But over the years God has surrounded me with a community that sees, expects, demands, and LOVES more out of me than I would ever give or dream I have to give if left to myself.

Many of you related and connected to the turquoise image I used in my sermon on Day 1. The love of a close community is like the friction created in a rock tumbler...tumbling the rough edges and crevasses out of our nature and simultaneously revealing what's most beautiful in us (the polished surface that lets us see into the rock's nature bringing out its native color and character) while also creating a reflective surface that more selflessly mirrors the beauty in others around us.

At the end of the day, I am the product of the choice of others to love me even when they didn't feel like doing so. And so are you. We hear this command from Jesus in John 13:34-5: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another."

Well, there it is. You and I both know that those we live with in community aren't always that easy to love. Perhaps the same thing could just as easily be said about ourselves. But Jesus' commandment asks us to strive for this ethic: that in our choice to love one another the world would see how it is we choose to reflect and draw out what is best in each other rather than what is worst. Our love for each other is what calls us to life. Our love for each other is the vehicle through which the nature of the God of love is made visible to the world.

PRAYER FOR THE DAY: Lord Jesus, today you will place me in situations and circumstances where I may not feel like loving others. But you will still call me to choose to love them. I pray strength for this work today, and pray that as you unleash your love in my life today, I might be a catalyst for what is best in others rather than what is worst, that your beloved human community might reflect the power of your kingdom. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen

TASK FOR THE DAY: Name the people in your life that bring out the best in you and that have a deep and abiding commitment to love you even when you are unlovable. Then pick up the phone, send an e-card or normal card and tell those people what their love for you and presence in your life has done to build you up and how it has shaped you for the better.

Day 1 - The Energy of Community: LOVE

You will hear me this weekend tie in our life in community to the life of God. Try as we might to make all aspects of life about us, our very being still begins with a life that's outside of our own...that divine Spirit that blows over the waters of chaos in Genesis 1 and causes from that chaos beautiful life and order to emerge where there was none. And then at the end of that first creative act, in Genesis 1:26, God says about you and I, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness..."

This is to say that you as an individual are not necessarily imagio dei...the image of God. Rather, you in community are. And you are especially as certain characteristics flow between you and those you are in community with around you: when love is present -- not the self-serving kind, but the self-giving kind; when there's affirmation; when there's a sense that the sum of who we are together is much greater than who we are individually. This is powerful stuff.

I know that many of us struggle with the same sorts of things. Our circumstances and the particulars of our lives may look different, but we're all DOING life in the same way: by ourselves and on our own steam. It's a recipe for burnout and for hopelessness. You weren't created to live life like this. I wasn't created to live life like this. This is why God designed a universe where there can be no "I" without a "we."

So who's your "we?" Who's in your life that loves you with the love of Christ? That prayers for you daily? That knows the spiritual, mental and physical battles you are working through? Who holds you accountable to a life "walking wet" in the baptismal waters that hold you? Who serves Christ in the world with you? Who you can reciprocate all these things with and through?

My prayer is that as this journey launches you are plugged into a "40 Days of Community" small group so that if you can't answer these questions, you could begin forming the community and relationships that will allow you to begin to answer them in the affirmative.

My exhortation for each of us today? "Reach for each other! And as you do so, discover deeper, more purposeful, more powerful, more hopeful life!"

See you tomorrow here at the Spirit Porch. Peace!

Pastor Nathan