The Journeymen

I was pleased to get my hands on a three-week old copy of Sports Illustrated this week, courtesy of my staff colleague, Cory Jones, who subscribes and is nice enough to pass on most issues to me when he finishes with them. Hey, the Canaanite woman told Jesus that even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table (Matthew 15:21-28). I’m not too proud to wait for the table scraps from our staff Sports-Master.

The October 19 issue featured a full-length article about Houston Texans interior defensive lineman, Jeff Zgonina, who has played on eight teams over a 17-year career, most of the time as a back-up or special teams player. He has been cut numerous times only to be picked up by another team, and has never made more than the NFL minimum salary. Sports Illustrated writer Tim Layden notes:

“The NFL is larger than life, an unscripted weekly drama with celebrity superhero stars. You know their names. But if they are the face of the sport, Zgonina is the soul… He has never been a star, but he has left deep footprints in the locker room of every team for which he has played, providing a heavy dose of daily professionalism and demanding the same from his peers.”

When Zgonina retires this year or next, he will leave behind a legacy of steady, quiet contribution. One man who has coached him on three different teams says, “You’d like for everybody to be All-Pro and tear it up out there, but there aren’t many of those. Jeff is a true pro. He studies hard, works hard, plays hard. And on Sundays he’s still hard to move off the ball.”

As a Christ-follower for twenty-seven years and a preacher for seventeen, I have seen hundreds of Jeff Zgoninas in the local church. They aren’t the five-star talents, the ones whose name everyone knows. They are men and women who quietly and faithfully serve Christ in His church. When a ministry needs volunteers, they are there. When the church holds a special event, they show up to help. When there is a hole to fill, they don’t ask, “Does this fit with my spiritual gift inventory?” They just fill it. Some of them have moved from city to city for family or vocational reasons, and each time they move they find a local church, commit to its mission and ministry, and resume their quiet service. These kinds of folks keep the church going. They are marvelous.

I know many preachers like this too. They don’t get invited to be the keynote speaker at lectureships. They may or may not write books or blog. But they tend to stay at a congregation for fifteen, twenty, twenty-five years, quietly and effectively preaching and teaching the Word, ministering to the flock, and serving in the community.

Listen, we need our Barnabases and Sauls. They inspire us and often lead the way. But for every one of them there are twenty journeymen Christians, quietly helping the local church live out God’s mission.

As the Sports Illustrated article notes, the oldest field player in the NFL is Brett Favre. He is a bonafide superstar, a first-ballot Hall of Famer. The second oldest is Jeff Zgonina. He arrives at the Texans practice facility soon after 5 a.m. each workday, usually the first player there.

Thank you, Lord, for your journeymen.

The Materialist Bet

I have been re-reading Armond Nicholi’s outstanding book, The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex and the Meaning of Life. Next to C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, this is the best work of Christian apologetics I have read (to date). When Lewis was an atheistic but searching student at Oxford, he felt himself torn between the “material” and “spiritual” worldviews. The “materialists” believe that physical matter is all that exists – there is no spiritual or supernatural reality. When we talk about “materialism” these days we usually refer to an excessive interest in clothes, cars, flat-screen TV’s and the like, but underneath this lies the deeper material worldview.

I have found it helpful to reflect on this as I spend time in Matthew 6:24-34, from which I am preaching this week. Jesus teaches his followers not to be anxious about what we are to eat, drink or wear. He tells us that our heavenly Father knows that we need these things (6:32) so we should trust in His provision while giving our best attention to God and His work and His ways. In short, “seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (6:33).

Back to the material worldview. It makes sense that if the world of matter is all there is, then we ought to “make the most of the time” and try to experience the best of it and as much of it as we can in our short life – clothes, cars, boats, TV’s, jewelry, beaches, mountains, casinos, golf, food, drink. But if we believe that there is a deeper spiritual reality in this life, and furthermore that this life is both preparation for and prelude to the full experience of this spiritual reality, then we ought to be careful not to put all our chips on the materialist bet.

I am often wary of zero-sum arguments, but it seems to me that Jesus teaches us here and elsewhere that we can’t have it all – if we try to load up on all the material things and experiences and squeeze them for all the pleasure we can get from them, we will miss out on the spiritual riches available to us. There simply will not be room in our heart and soul for them. This is why Jesus says “You cannot serve both God and Mammon” (6:24). Mammon does not refer to money, per se, but to possessions and stuff, the things which money purchases and which demands our attention.

Jesus says something striking: “The pagans run after all these things” (6:32). Well of course they do! They are materialists! If I were a pagan I would run after them too because that is all I could count on for fulfillment and happiness in this life! Jesus’ point is that those who believe in Him, His resurrection, the Kingdom, the Spirit, the spiritual reality of God at work in the world and in the lives of His people, ought to know better than to run down this road, which is a dead-end as the Bible reminds us so often (see Ecc. 3:10-11, Luke 12:13-21; I Tim. 6:6-10, et al.).

Listen, God’s creation is good and there is much to enjoy. The opposite of materialism is an unhealthy asceticism which eschews all pleasures-of-this-world in order to focus only on the “spiritual.” But for most of us that is not where our challenge lies.

I believe Jesus calls us to a simplicity that makes room for God’s will and his work in our lives. It is not simplicity as an end in itself, but to let God in. He will not force himself in. He wants to know that we believe He is there and He loves us, unlike the extra TV or outfit.

The Fairness Doctrine?

The summer after I graduated from high school in New Orleans in 1980, I worked for a temp company called Manpower. One of my assignments was to work with Colonial Molasses at the plant where they shipped low-grade molasses to be used for cattle feed (as I recall). I was one of the workers who, after a million-gallon tank of molasses was drained onto a railroad car, would go into the tank with rubber boots on and squeegee the last two inches of thick, syrupy stuff into the drains. It was about 130 degrees in those tanks, so we had to do it in 5-minute shifts, after which we would stumble out of the hatch into the comparably cool 110 degree New Orleans summer weather. I developed a strong motivation to go to college while doing this job.

Another temp job that Manpower sent me to was with AMF Tuboscope, which tested oil drilling pipe for structural soundness. We would spend most of the day rolling pipe into and out of the testing area. Luckily, this was mostly under a large awning in the shade.

The hours at AMF Tuboscope were 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. I remember distinctly one day being let off work at about 10 a.m. I brought my Manpower time-card into the supervisor’s office; he smiled slightly and wrote “8 hours.” I took his smile to mean, “It’s not your fault we don’t have a full day’s work for you today. You’re a temp worker trying to earn a living. Receive this as a gift.” That’s the way I took it, but he didn’t say anything and I didn’t ask. I was just happy for his generosity.

I wonder how the full-time AMF Tuboscope workers would have felt had they found out. They had to stay the full 8 hours to get their day’s wage. Would they have been happy with his generosity to me?

Jesus’ Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), about which I am preaching this week, tells of a generous landowner who does for the workers hired later in the day what the AMF supervisor did for me. But the full-time workers hired early in the morning don’t see it as a generous gesture for someone else. They see it as unfair treatment of them.

This initiates a dialogue which is at the heart of the parable and which gives us a glimpse into the radical grace of the Kingdom. The landowner pays the first-hired workers the agreed upon wage, and the last-hired workers with largesse. Does that make his treatment of the first workers unfair? In the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) the elder son has been treated fairly but not generously. He only begins to resent this when he sees how generously the Father treats his younger brother.

It seems to me that Jesus is pointing us to a heart and a mindset that can “rejoice with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15) without comparing our fortune to theirs and without being insecure about the Master’s care for us. This is difficult because in our small-heartedness (the New Testament calls this “flesh”) we base so much of our inner self-worth and outer satisfaction on how we compare with others.

In the Kingdom of God “the last,” those who typically don’t get many breaks in life, are treated especially generously. Will God’s “firsts” resent this? That’s the drama of the parable, and part of the Kingdom drama in our lives. Stop comparing. Be grateful.

Inside and Outside the Walls

This Sunday West Houston is participating in a national initiative called Be-the-Church Day,” in which congregations assemble in their regular meeting place for worship (or not), then disburse around their community to serve others in the love of Christ. The point is to express the reality that God’s intention for his church is both to assemble for worship and to be the hands and feet of Christ in our communities.

Some congregations are not meeting for worship at all, just to make the point that church should happen “outside the walls,” but I think that is misguided. The fact is that the Body of Christ is called both to assemble in worship and to serve in the world. Acts 2:42 notes that after Pentecost the followers of Jesus “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer.” They did these things by gathering together. Indeed, the early Christians chose a term to describe themselves, ekklesia, which in secular usage referred to a public assembly. There is a sense in which the church becomes the church by assembling. Jesus says, “Where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them” (Matthew 18:20). We gather at the Table, hear the scriptures taught and preached, sing praises to God, pray, and encourage one another as we assemble.

On the other hand, the Bible records a number of instances in which God expresses his disgust for his peoples’ elaborate worship assemblies which have no connection to their daily lives, particularly inasmuch as they exploit the poor and are indifferent to the needy (see Isaiah 1:10-20, Amos 5:18-27, Micah 6:6-8). This is an important reminder to American Christians, who typically associate church with a building and often confuse “going to church” with “being the church.” I have the following conversation about once a week, it seems, with someone who finds out that I am a preacher:
Stranger: “Where is your church?”
Me: “All over northwest Houston.”
Stranger: “I mean, where IS it.”
Me: “We meet on West Rd. and Queenston, but since the church is the people of Christ, not the building, I like to say we are located all over northwest Houston.”

Yes, I am always this charming.

But I feel it is an important reminder. American Christianity is too building-centered. We tend to say “I go to such-and-such a church” not too differently than we say “I go to L.A. Fitness” or “I go to Starbucks.”

The church is a movement; it is a cause. It is Christ’s people gathering together in His name and then going out “into the mission field of our lives,” as I say each week in the benediction. We express in our daily lives “outside the walls” what we proclaim and affirm when we assemble “inside the walls.” Be-the-Church days are a good reminder of this.

So, this Sunday after our worship assembly we will spread out all over northwest Houston doing service projects for people in need, expressing the love of Christ in tangible ways.

It is part of being the church instead of just going to church. Which one best describes you?

Charitable Judgments

A short news item caught my eye this week. The article noted that Michael Vick addressed a group of people at a Washington, D.C. church in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city on Tuesday, accompanied by the president and CEO of the Humane Society. Vick told the sparse crowd that dogfighting is pointless and he doesn’t know why he risked his career for it. “I got caught up in the culture. I never thought I would get caught. I used poor judgment. I had people around me who didn’t have my best interests at heart.” While playing quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, Vick would go home to Virginia every week to fight dogs. “For what reason, I don’t know to this day. Something so pointless.”

Vick was a college football phenom at Virginia Tech who went on to star at quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. In 2007 he was implicated in an extensive interstate dog-fighting ring that had operated for five years. Vick pled guilty to federal felony charges and was sentenced to twenty-three months in prison, during which time he declared bankruptcy. It was a stunning public fall from grace. Moreover, because of the details which emerged of the brutal practices he employed as the owner of Bad Newz Kennels, he became the object of intense public debate about whether he should be allowed to re-enter the NFL after his release from prison. Vick subsequently has been reinstated and currently plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. He also spends time speaking at inner-city schools and in other public venues warning children not to repeat his mistakes.

Critics have noted that Vick’s public talks lack some of the key words and tone associated with remorse. For instance, saying the whole thing was “pointless” does not have the same ring it would if he said how “horrible” and “inexcusable” his treatment of dogs was.

But I’d like to suggest we give the man the benefit of the doubt. Let’s make a charitable judgment. What if he knows he committed a federal crime, outraged the public, and did wrong, but does not feel his actions were as despicable as many others do? The man is still “bearing fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). He has paid his debt to society by serving his prison term and is now trying to use his stunningly self-destructive downfall as a teaching example for children growing up in poor and crime-riddled neighborhoods who may be susceptible to similar unsavory influences. Will we now parse his every word and voice inflection for signs of sincerity and thereby judge his inner motives? Don’t each of us often have motives that are laced with self-interest?

This, I think, is one of the things Jesus is saying in Luke 6:27-38, from which I am preaching this week. He’s saying make charitable judgments about people (6:37). He’s saying measure others with the measure you want to be used on you (6:38). He’s saying treat others the way you want others to treat you (6:31). Evaluate people by their actions. If they are bad actions, criticize them. But if they are good actions, don’t assign or assume impure motives behind them unless you have a concrete basis for doing so or would want others to do the same to you.

Jesus says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (6:36). It is often difficult.

For Sure

As I sat in the medical waiting area with my daughter Alex earlier this week and flipped through a copy of Oprah Winfrey’s magazine, I came upon a delightful interview with 30-Rock star and former Saturday Night Live fixture Tina Fey. The last question Oprah asked Ms. Fey was, “What do you know for sure?”

That’s a good question! Here are a few things I know for sure:

* I know for sure that Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak is the real deal; his players respect, like and want to win for him. In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, former Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy said (I paraphrase), “The Texans are a team people should be talking about. They are doing things right. Every time we played them, they were better than the last time.”

* I know for sure that I would like for people to say about me, “Every time I encountered him he was a better man than the last time.”

* I know for sure that a good spouse is one of life’s greatest blessings.

* I know for sure that after months of drought, a steady and gentle rain is almost magical.

* I know for sure that there is a huge difference between coming home to an empty house and coming home to a house with a dog.

* I know for sure that when dozens of ladies every Thursday morning walk purposefully into our building for Ladies Bible study, and leave ninety minutes later smiling and chatting with one another, that is a good indicator of the church’s health, and it makes me smile every week.

* I know for sure that the more we ask the government to do for us the less we will take responsibility for doing for ourselves; it is just human nature.

* I know for sure that this is one of life’s ironies: friends of mine who are between jobs are desperately restless and want to be busy; friends of mine who have jobs are desperately busy and want to rest; and it is very hard in life ever to achieve balance between these two poles.

* I know for sure that when I am sitting in a medical waiting room and flipping through a magazine, and a man sits down across from me and starts to witness to me about Jesus, that conversation will be a lot more interesting than anything I am reading in the magazine.

* I know for sure that Jesus Christ reclaims lives and transforms people. I know this for sure because the man who witnessed to me in the hospital waiting area was a former Aryan Brotherhood leader who spent a quarter-century in a federal penitentiary for heinous crimes he declined to detail out of respect for my daughter, and who was supposed to serve his remaining years in a Texas prison except for a legal glitch that allowed him to go free, and having become a Christ-follower, now runs a Christian camp for troubled adolescents who need the kind of tough-but-gentle love and masculine guidance he never got as a kid, and who is so filled with gratitude to Jesus that when he comes to the hospital every two weeks for his hepatitis treatments, he engages whomever he is sitting near in a spiritual conversation that gives him an opportunity to tell others about what God has done for him.

* I know for sure that I want to be more like that man.

No Better News

I begin a series this week called “The Ten Most Important Teachings of Jesus.” It is an audacious title; after all, what constitutes “most important”? Does it mean the teachings that have had the most historical impact? Or the teachings that Jesus would consider most important? Here is what I mean by “most important:” These are Jesus’ teachings which I believe Christ-followers at West Houston should give special attention to given where we are spiritually in the fall of 2009. How’s that for a caveat? Oh, and I am preaching them in no particular order of importance.

I am beginning with Jesus’ core proclamation and teaching, found in Mark 1:15 (and Matthew 4:17): “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent and believe the gospel!” This both undergirds and summarizes Jesus’ entire ministry. His healings and works of mercy are manifestations of God’s in-breaking kingdom. His teachings are explications of God’s in-breaking kingdom. His atoning death for our sins and his bodily resurrection in victory over sin, death and the Devil are confirmation of and catalyst for God’s in-breaking kingdom.

The kingdom of God is very personal. In Jesus’ conversation with a curious Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus says, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” And “No one can enter into the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” (3:3, 5). Participation in this kingdom is predicated on personal faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the One in whom the kingdom holds together (Colossians 1:17). You don’t enter into and participate in the kingdom by virtue of your mother’s faith or because your great-grandfather was a preacher. It is your decision. It is personal.

The kingdom of God is also social and political. It engages economic, political and social structures, seeking to bring about justice and well-being. You cannot be part of God’s kingdom and only care about your personal spiritual condition. There are other kingdoms which vie for supremacy in the world (Matthew 4:8, et al.), and God calls for our participation in his redemptive work to overthrow those kingdoms as part of the extension of His will in all spheres. Wherever there is oppression, cruelty, or indifference to suffering, God’s kingdom reign has not taken hold and is trying to break in. Indeed, there are kingdoms which vie for the loyalty of our own hearts. That is why Jesus teaches, “Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (food, clothing, shelter) will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

One of the most challenging things about understanding the kingdom of God is that Jesus never really gives us a definition! He gives analogies and stories and descriptions. Our faith is tested, stretched and strengthened by trying to more deeply understand and participate in God’s kingdom.

I would paraphrase Jesus’ announcement in Mark 1:15 this way, “God’s rule over peoples’ hearts and lives is now being established. He is bringing people into relationship and partnership with Himself in a new way through Me. You must change your direction and outlook on life in order to welcome and take hold of this. Take heed!”

There is no better news.