The Foreign Land of Humility

Philippians 2:1-11 

   Humility is basic Christianity.  Which is sobering, considering how difficult, counter and foreign it is to us.  Even those of us who are not brash, who do not boast aloud ... we silently notice when it is not about us, when we are not noticed or fully appreciated.  If I am humble, I am not really thinking about me, or what should be mine, or what I should be getting, or who should be noticing ... those things, even if deserved, are not something to be grasped - just as Christ did not grasp at what was rightfully His, equality with God, but emptied Himself. Likewise, I am to die to myself, make myself nothing, serve, follow, look outward ... and leave the noticing to God - who sees in secret and rewards in secret (Matt. 6).

Am I the Me I think I am?

   Sometimes, we hear ourselves the way we want to hear ourselves.  We even create our own reality around our perceptions of ourselves and others.


    Have you ever had an encounter that upset you and afterwards, you replayed it in your mind ... emphasizing certain parts and maybe even recreating certain parts ... in essence, making your own reality, a more flattering reality?  Especially when the real reality is not very flattering.


   This dramatization that I heard on This American Life conveys it pretty well ...

Act Two. The Conversation. from Own Worst Enemy

   

The Surprisingly Obvious God

God is both surprising and obvious. But most often, He is obvious in retrospect and we can wonder why He seemed surprising (and disappointing, anxiety provoking, irritating or scary).

Peter's vision in Acts 10 and his interaction with God, with Cornelius and with the new gentile believers in Caesarea, seems obvious to us in retrospect, but was probably the last thing that Peter would have expected. We see God's kingdom, grace and power spreading to new geographies and people groups ... Peter saw a revolution, after he struggled with God in his vision. First surprising, then obvious. From our perspective, only obvious.

We can look at another life and see the obvious (or what seems obvious to us) hand of God. We see Him in His providence allowing trying or surprising or difficult or anxiety provoking circumstances, because we tend to rely only on ourselves if we think we can. This is easy to see in retrospect, it is easier to see in retrospect in the life of another. But while it is happening to us, it is not obvious, it is only surprising.

Faith is believing that God is there, that His providence is real, that His love is constant, that He knows all things ... when life is more surprising than it is obvious. Faith is believing that we will one day see God's hand, maybe from eternity, hopefully sooner, when we can't make it out in the present. To encourage, to bear, to build up sometimes means reminding someone else of this when it seems more obvious to you and to be encouraged, to be built up means letting someone else remind us of this when it seems more surprising.

What Color is Your Idol?

Idolatry is, we think, an Old Testament phenomenon. But if we look at an idol as anything that we substitute for following Christ, we probably all have them - but tend to look past them. In Genesis 11, God scattered the people to put his plan into effect. In the process, he thwarted their plan to build the great city and tower of Babel. Not because it was horribly wrong, but because He had another plan - a people, a law, a land, a Savior - that was better. Sometimes, God may have to ask us to tear down what gets in His way in our life - our idol. Perhaps we worship at the idol of safety, of predictability, of control, of identity, status - or whatever. We, at some point, probably repeatedly, will need to decide whom or what we are really following. In order to do that we need to believe that God can handle our life better than whatever else we are trusting in, and, more importantly, that He loves us - that His way for us is better for us, because He loves us. If we don't cross this bridge with Him, we will probably stick to our little idols.

God's Mission

We live between the Fall and the Consummation of all things. God is, in Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, working to bring all things to redemption. His mission is sure and we can be certain He will accomplish it. He calls us to join Him. He calls us to minister the truth of the gospel through lives of love and words that bring the healing power of the gospel. He calls us to work for healing and justice and beauty. The idea that we think of something that sounds good and ask God for help is flawed - we are called to join God's mission, He is not called to join ours. Let us, through His word and the leading of the Spirit, see what God is doing around us and join Him.

Why Theology?

Today, it seems that theology provokes two opposite reactions in the Christian community.
Some have an overdeveloped truth reflex - seeking to do battle with anyone who disagrees with their theology on even the smallest point. For these, there are no smallest points, they are all hills to die on.
Some have an overdeveloped grace reflex - seeking only to follow Jesus and finding all theological disagreements to be distasteful distractions from this following.
What is needed is a healthy approach to theology that is guided by a respect for God's Word and is colored with humility, faith and awe. 'Truth Man' has the tendency to strain out gnats while swallowing camels. His truth can become self-serving and self-righteous - and it lacks grace. And, truth that lacks grace begins to be less true. Because grace is part of truth.
'Grace Man' wants to follow Jesus, at times without doing the theological work needed to know what following Jesus really means (according to Jesus). His grace can become a weak image of true grace, because truth is part of grace (the truth of God's plan, work, holiness and rule).
Theology is unavoidable - because, aware of it or not, we live out a theology every day - a theology for which we one day will give an accounting. Since we all have a theology, we probably should give some thought to which theology we are living out.

When God seems too close

Sometimes we say that God seems too far away. When we are looking for direction, when we are in need of divine intervention - we may cry out to God to come close. But, as we have been talking about over the last few weeks, even then I think we may want him to come close on our own terms. Bringing what we want, what we think we need - in the manner we want Him to. A very big trained helper, bringing help.
But, of course, God does not actually come close to us in the manner we prescribe, or even in the timing we request. Sometimes God hits us with a burning bush - something we weren' t looking for with a message we weren't seeking for a problem we weren't trying to solve. Asking us to leave something, go to someone, change this, give that up. Coming close on His agenda. Do we really want this? We know the right answer should be yes, but it does not always feel comfortable, or even comforting.
We are called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength - and that means loving him when He comes too close for comfort - even learning to love that He comes too close for comfort. Even seeking His closeness on His terms, in His time, in His way - when we can be there, we are finally in a position to keep this first and greatest commandment.