Here is another post from my other blog on Sunday, September 11, 2005:
This Sunday (September 11) we talked about the fourth of five stories Jesus told which illustrate how we should live our lives in light of the ever-present possibility that He could return at any time. You can read about it in Matthew 25:14 – 30.
In this story, a master gives three of his servants a test while he goes on a trip. Two of them succeed and one fails. It reminds me of The Apprentice in that people are tested to see how they handle small challenges to know if they can be trusted with bigger ones. Unlike The Apprentice, though, it’s not cut throat and everyone has a chance to succeed.
The first two servants are motivated by the opportunity and demonstrate diligence by immediately putting what was given to them to work to try to bring a greater return for their master. They were willing to risk loss, but succeeded in doubling what was given to them. They were both rewarded by being given greater opportunities and were invited to celebrate with their master.
The third servant was motivated by fear and an unhealthy understanding of his master. He accused the master of being someone who exploits others. He hid the funds that were given him and brought no increase to his master. He had the little that was given to him taken away and is kicked out of the master’s household. Even if he had risked what was given to him and lost it, I believe the master would have been more merciful to him.
This story shows us that God wants us to take what we have been given (relationships, abilities, finances, etc.) and actively work to increase the influence of His kingdom in this world. We sometimes need to take calculated risks, even if it means we could loss everything. If we tightly hold on to the little we have we probably will not keep it for that long. God will reward our faithful diligence with greater opportunity and joy.
As we closed we pondered the questions, "How much an I willing to risk for the sake of God?"
Friday, September 22, 2006
Tales from the Kingdom of Heaven: The Big Party
Here is another post from my other blob on Sunday, September 04, 2005:
On Friday, August 26, we discussed a story Jesus told about a wedding feast prepared by a king. It is found in Matt 22:1 – 14.
In the story, the king has everything prepared to throw a wedding feast for his son. He sends his servants out to remind those that had already been invited that it is time for the feast to begin. The guests ignore the invitation, so the king sends his servants out a second time with a more enticing description of the feast. This time there is a more violent response to his invitation.
After dispensing justice on those who murdered his servants, the king sends another group of servants out to extend an open invitation to anyone who wants to come to the feast. The banquet hall is filled with people. As he walks through the hall, he notices a person one guests is not wearing appropriate wedding clothes. When the man cannot give the king a reason for his oversight, the king has him cast out of the feast.
In this story, it seems those who were on the original guest list did not place a high value on being a part of the king’s feast. The king showed great patience in extending a second invitation to the same group of people. The violent response illustrates the way many people have responded to God’s prophets throughout history and may be a foreshadow of the way Jesus, the Son of God, would eventually be treated as well. The people’s own rejection of the invitation disqualifies them for the honor of being a part of the celebration.
The open invitation that is extended later illustrates God’s graciousness and His desire to have people enter celebration with Him. He wants to lavish His goodness on all that will enter His kingdom without regard to human standards.
The scene between that king and the man who was not wearing appropriate wedding clothes is a little hard to reconcile with the image of a God who loves all people. Some play down the possibility that the king would have provided appropriate wedding clothes for those who could not buy their own (not specifically mentioned in the story, but assumed by some people). Still, the image fits when you consider that in Christ’s death God provided the means by which all who are unworthy (all of us) can enter into His celebration.
Regardless if there were clothes provided for the guests, the man’s inability to give an answer shows that he himself realized he was without excuse for this oversight. He did not value the gracious invitation he had received to even change into clothes that would be appropriate for the wedding.
The key to understanding this story hangs on the closing phrase "many are called, but few are chosen." Some have used this phrase to defend the idea of an arbitrary predestination by which God selects those who are admitted to heaven. This view reminds me of a line from REM’s "Man on the Moon:" "See you in heaven if you make the list." This story does not express the arbitrary decision of a malicious tyrant trying to create an elite society. It is the broad invitation of a loving and good King that is unfortunately rejected by many.
The challenge for us is to take seriously the invitation of God to enter His celebration. It is an offer of unmerited favor. One person at our gathering wondered if perhaps the reason the guests did not value the feast is that they didn’t see the value in how the invitation was extended to them. When you consider that God’s invitation to us takes the form of Him dying on a messy cross, it does not seem too far from the truth.
As we closed our meeting, we pondered this question together: How seriously, do I take the invitation of God to enter His celebration?
On Friday, August 26, we discussed a story Jesus told about a wedding feast prepared by a king. It is found in Matt 22:1 – 14.
In the story, the king has everything prepared to throw a wedding feast for his son. He sends his servants out to remind those that had already been invited that it is time for the feast to begin. The guests ignore the invitation, so the king sends his servants out a second time with a more enticing description of the feast. This time there is a more violent response to his invitation.
After dispensing justice on those who murdered his servants, the king sends another group of servants out to extend an open invitation to anyone who wants to come to the feast. The banquet hall is filled with people. As he walks through the hall, he notices a person one guests is not wearing appropriate wedding clothes. When the man cannot give the king a reason for his oversight, the king has him cast out of the feast.
In this story, it seems those who were on the original guest list did not place a high value on being a part of the king’s feast. The king showed great patience in extending a second invitation to the same group of people. The violent response illustrates the way many people have responded to God’s prophets throughout history and may be a foreshadow of the way Jesus, the Son of God, would eventually be treated as well. The people’s own rejection of the invitation disqualifies them for the honor of being a part of the celebration.
The open invitation that is extended later illustrates God’s graciousness and His desire to have people enter celebration with Him. He wants to lavish His goodness on all that will enter His kingdom without regard to human standards.
The scene between that king and the man who was not wearing appropriate wedding clothes is a little hard to reconcile with the image of a God who loves all people. Some play down the possibility that the king would have provided appropriate wedding clothes for those who could not buy their own (not specifically mentioned in the story, but assumed by some people). Still, the image fits when you consider that in Christ’s death God provided the means by which all who are unworthy (all of us) can enter into His celebration.
Regardless if there were clothes provided for the guests, the man’s inability to give an answer shows that he himself realized he was without excuse for this oversight. He did not value the gracious invitation he had received to even change into clothes that would be appropriate for the wedding.
The key to understanding this story hangs on the closing phrase "many are called, but few are chosen." Some have used this phrase to defend the idea of an arbitrary predestination by which God selects those who are admitted to heaven. This view reminds me of a line from REM’s "Man on the Moon:" "See you in heaven if you make the list." This story does not express the arbitrary decision of a malicious tyrant trying to create an elite society. It is the broad invitation of a loving and good King that is unfortunately rejected by many.
The challenge for us is to take seriously the invitation of God to enter His celebration. It is an offer of unmerited favor. One person at our gathering wondered if perhaps the reason the guests did not value the feast is that they didn’t see the value in how the invitation was extended to them. When you consider that God’s invitation to us takes the form of Him dying on a messy cross, it does not seem too far from the truth.
As we closed our meeting, we pondered this question together: How seriously, do I take the invitation of God to enter His celebration?
Tails of the Kingdom of Heaven: Day Labor
Here's a post from my other blog on August 11, 2005:
This Friday we discussed a story Jesus told of some laborers who worked for a man who owned a vineyard. Although different groups of workers started at different times throughout the day (one group working for only one hour), they were all given one day’s wage for their work no matter how long they had actually worked. The story is found in Matt 20:1 – 16. For a contextual understanding of the point Jesus was making, we read the incident immediately preceding the story (Matt 19:16 – 30)Jesus book ended the story with the same proverb, "Many who are first will be last; and the last, first." The New Living Translation of 19:30 helps us understand the point of this proverb. "But many who seem to be important now will be the least important then, and those who are considered least her will be greatest then." In the culture and time that Jesus walked the earth, it was commonly assumed that wealthy people would be admitted to heaven because their wealth was evidence of God’s blessing. Therefore, when Jesus said that it is actually very difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, it went against what their society was telling them.The point of the story is very basic. God will hand out His rewards according to His sovereignty. He does not use our standards of fairness. The workers in the story who felt they merited a larger wage than they originally agreed to because they worked longer than their coworkers. Still, it was within the landowners right to reward everyone with a full day’s pay no matter how long they worked.This story has many implications for following Jesus today. Most importantly, there is no place for classism in the Kingdom of God. The sad reality is this does slip into the Kingdom of God at times. At a recent national meeting of one denomination, one of the denomination’s leaders from Africa addressed the people gathered there. He was thankful for the ways that the U.S. branch had assisted in the spreading of the message of Jesus in Africa. Still, he was concerned that some Americans also were unintentionally exporting our ideas of success and celebrity worship. His point was that God’s value was not determined by the size of the ministry.We need to give up our notions of status and blessing. The Kingdom of God is really for the outcasts. This doesn’t automatically disqualify the "acceptable" people. Just as much as a person can take pride in his/her success, someone could also look to his or her poverty or status as an outcast as a thing of pride. In the end, God is the one who sorts out people’s motives.I sometimes wonder if the trouble we have with God’s sovereignty is that we take ourselves too seriously. It is at the heart of the complaint of the workers who worked all day in vs. 12 of the story. Ultimately the Kingdom of God is about God and His glory not us. The comforting reality is that when we start to realize this, we put ourselves in the hands of a loving and caring God who wants what’s best for us. He just likes to liberally spread that blessing around.As we closed our discussion we pondered this question: Am I seeking God only for what I can get out of it or am I concerned with his glory?
This Friday we discussed a story Jesus told of some laborers who worked for a man who owned a vineyard. Although different groups of workers started at different times throughout the day (one group working for only one hour), they were all given one day’s wage for their work no matter how long they had actually worked. The story is found in Matt 20:1 – 16. For a contextual understanding of the point Jesus was making, we read the incident immediately preceding the story (Matt 19:16 – 30)Jesus book ended the story with the same proverb, "Many who are first will be last; and the last, first." The New Living Translation of 19:30 helps us understand the point of this proverb. "But many who seem to be important now will be the least important then, and those who are considered least her will be greatest then." In the culture and time that Jesus walked the earth, it was commonly assumed that wealthy people would be admitted to heaven because their wealth was evidence of God’s blessing. Therefore, when Jesus said that it is actually very difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, it went against what their society was telling them.The point of the story is very basic. God will hand out His rewards according to His sovereignty. He does not use our standards of fairness. The workers in the story who felt they merited a larger wage than they originally agreed to because they worked longer than their coworkers. Still, it was within the landowners right to reward everyone with a full day’s pay no matter how long they worked.This story has many implications for following Jesus today. Most importantly, there is no place for classism in the Kingdom of God. The sad reality is this does slip into the Kingdom of God at times. At a recent national meeting of one denomination, one of the denomination’s leaders from Africa addressed the people gathered there. He was thankful for the ways that the U.S. branch had assisted in the spreading of the message of Jesus in Africa. Still, he was concerned that some Americans also were unintentionally exporting our ideas of success and celebrity worship. His point was that God’s value was not determined by the size of the ministry.We need to give up our notions of status and blessing. The Kingdom of God is really for the outcasts. This doesn’t automatically disqualify the "acceptable" people. Just as much as a person can take pride in his/her success, someone could also look to his or her poverty or status as an outcast as a thing of pride. In the end, God is the one who sorts out people’s motives.I sometimes wonder if the trouble we have with God’s sovereignty is that we take ourselves too seriously. It is at the heart of the complaint of the workers who worked all day in vs. 12 of the story. Ultimately the Kingdom of God is about God and His glory not us. The comforting reality is that when we start to realize this, we put ourselves in the hands of a loving and caring God who wants what’s best for us. He just likes to liberally spread that blessing around.As we closed our discussion we pondered this question: Am I seeking God only for what I can get out of it or am I concerned with his glory?
Tails from the Kingdom of Heaven: Forgiveness
Here is another post from my other blog on August 3, 2005:
This past Friday we discussed the story Jesus told of a servant who received a great amount of mercy from his king, but he could not find the same compassion in his heart to forgive a fellow servant of a much smaller debt. It is recorded in Matthew 18:21 - 35. It comes on the heals of one of Jesus' followers asking Him how often he should forgive someone who has wronged him.In this story, the first servant owed the king a debt he could never hope to pay back. The king was going to remedy the situation by selling the servant, his family, and all his possessions into slavery in order to recover at least a portion of the debt. The first servant pleaded for mercy. The king had compassion on the servant and cancelled his debt.After this the servant went to a fellow servant and demanded repayment of a much smaller debt. When the second servant asked for more time the first servant refused to forgive his fellow servant. Instead, he had the second servant thrown in prison until his debt could be repaid.When the king heard about this he cancelled his pardon of the first servant and had him thrown in prison until his much larger debt could be repaid. Given the size of the debt the first servant owed he was condemned to prison for life.Reading this story reminds me of a scene from Schindler's List. Oscar Schindler is having a discussion with the commandant of the concentration camp about power. To the commandant, his power over the Jews was based in their fear of him randomly shooting them from the balcony of his chateau. Schindler challenges him with a different view of power. "Power is having the right to shoot and choosing not to."The story Jesus told shows me the centrality of forgiveness in the Kingdom of God. God shows a great amount of mercy and compassion to us. It should produce a deep level of compassion and forgiveness in us toward others. God is more justified than any of us in showing wrath, yet it seems His greatest wrath is toward those who cannot find a place for compassion and grace toward others in their hearts.During our closing time, we pondered this question: Does God's compassion and mercy toward you produce the same response toward others or does it produce pride?
This past Friday we discussed the story Jesus told of a servant who received a great amount of mercy from his king, but he could not find the same compassion in his heart to forgive a fellow servant of a much smaller debt. It is recorded in Matthew 18:21 - 35. It comes on the heals of one of Jesus' followers asking Him how often he should forgive someone who has wronged him.In this story, the first servant owed the king a debt he could never hope to pay back. The king was going to remedy the situation by selling the servant, his family, and all his possessions into slavery in order to recover at least a portion of the debt. The first servant pleaded for mercy. The king had compassion on the servant and cancelled his debt.After this the servant went to a fellow servant and demanded repayment of a much smaller debt. When the second servant asked for more time the first servant refused to forgive his fellow servant. Instead, he had the second servant thrown in prison until his debt could be repaid.When the king heard about this he cancelled his pardon of the first servant and had him thrown in prison until his much larger debt could be repaid. Given the size of the debt the first servant owed he was condemned to prison for life.Reading this story reminds me of a scene from Schindler's List. Oscar Schindler is having a discussion with the commandant of the concentration camp about power. To the commandant, his power over the Jews was based in their fear of him randomly shooting them from the balcony of his chateau. Schindler challenges him with a different view of power. "Power is having the right to shoot and choosing not to."The story Jesus told shows me the centrality of forgiveness in the Kingdom of God. God shows a great amount of mercy and compassion to us. It should produce a deep level of compassion and forgiveness in us toward others. God is more justified than any of us in showing wrath, yet it seems His greatest wrath is toward those who cannot find a place for compassion and grace toward others in their hearts.During our closing time, we pondered this question: Does God's compassion and mercy toward you produce the same response toward others or does it produce pride?
Tails From the Kingdom of Heaven: a Mustard Seed and some Yeast
This is a post from my other blog from a discussion group we were a part of on June 11, 2005:
Last night we continued our series of discussions on the illustrations and stories that Jesus used to explain to the people of His time what the leadership of God is like. Many of these stories begin with the phrase; "the kingdom of Heaven is like," which gives us the title for our series.Last night we discussed Matthew 13:31 - 33. Here Jesus gives two similar illustrations of things that start very small, but end up with much larger results. The first is a mustard seed, which is a very small seed but potentially could grow to be several feet high over time. The second is yeast, which when just a small amount is put in a large lump of bread dough has the effect of permeating and changing the nature of the dough.The first illustration shows structural growth. The people of Jesus' time were looking for a powerful military or political leader to help them throw off their oppressors and rebuild their lost greatness as a nation. He showed that what God was going to initiate in the world would start out small and unimpressive, but it would have great results in the end. So often today, we look for movements that are big to identify with. Yet, what God may be doing in a particular place and time may seem to be unimpressive at first. It just may take some time to grow.The second illustration shows transformation. This is a little harder to measure and to accomplish. As we allow God's leadership to take control in our lives, it should have a transforming affect. As it transforms us and as we gather together with others who are being transformed in a community of faith, we should have a transforming effect on the environment around us. The change on both levels may take time, but we need to trust God that He is bringing it about.One of our participants said that sometimes he feels like the yeast (influencing others for the Kingdom of God) and sometimes he feels like the bread dough (needing to be influenced). We agreed that each of us needs that in different ways at times. As we spent time reflecting on what we discussed, we focussed on the question, "In what ways do I need the Kingdom of Heaven to influence and transform my life?"
Last night we continued our series of discussions on the illustrations and stories that Jesus used to explain to the people of His time what the leadership of God is like. Many of these stories begin with the phrase; "the kingdom of Heaven is like," which gives us the title for our series.Last night we discussed Matthew 13:31 - 33. Here Jesus gives two similar illustrations of things that start very small, but end up with much larger results. The first is a mustard seed, which is a very small seed but potentially could grow to be several feet high over time. The second is yeast, which when just a small amount is put in a large lump of bread dough has the effect of permeating and changing the nature of the dough.The first illustration shows structural growth. The people of Jesus' time were looking for a powerful military or political leader to help them throw off their oppressors and rebuild their lost greatness as a nation. He showed that what God was going to initiate in the world would start out small and unimpressive, but it would have great results in the end. So often today, we look for movements that are big to identify with. Yet, what God may be doing in a particular place and time may seem to be unimpressive at first. It just may take some time to grow.The second illustration shows transformation. This is a little harder to measure and to accomplish. As we allow God's leadership to take control in our lives, it should have a transforming affect. As it transforms us and as we gather together with others who are being transformed in a community of faith, we should have a transforming effect on the environment around us. The change on both levels may take time, but we need to trust God that He is bringing it about.One of our participants said that sometimes he feels like the yeast (influencing others for the Kingdom of God) and sometimes he feels like the bread dough (needing to be influenced). We agreed that each of us needs that in different ways at times. As we spent time reflecting on what we discussed, we focussed on the question, "In what ways do I need the Kingdom of Heaven to influence and transform my life?"
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