TAKE THE ADVENTURE THAT IS SENT US

In his Chronicles of Narnia book, The Silver Chair, C. S. Lewis has Jill Pole, Eustace Scrubb, and Puddleglum at a place of great decision.  A man whom we know only as “the Knight,” is tied to a silver chair.  He had been placed under a spell, what he referred to as an “enchantment.”  It held him in bondage.  He would vacillate between sanity and insanity. At night he became sane so his enemy saw to it that he was tied to the chair, trapped in an “enchantment” that for him was a prison.

            The knight begs Jill and Eustace and Puddleglum to cut him loose and set him free.  They are fearful because they don’t know whether or not he is telling them the truth, that should he be set free at night he would break the “enchantment.”

            As they ponder the matter they are reminded that they are on a mission from Aslan to find the lost prince, Rilian, and that on the mission they would encounter four signs that they were to act upon. The last of the signs was to be a moment when a prince would ask them to do something in the name of Aslan.  Now, the mad man in a silver chair is saying to them, “I adjure you to set me free.  By all fears and all loves, by the bright skies of Overland, by the great Lion, Aslan himself, I charge you.”  They are stunned.  Could this be the fourth sign? Is the man in the silver chair tricking them to set him free by using the words of the sign?  The question became a dilemma.  The dilemma because a choice.  What shall they do?  If they cut him loose and his trick works, they know he will kill them.  If they don’t cut him loose and it is the fourth sign, they will have failed on their mission for Aslan.

            Jill expresses her deep concern when she says, “Oh, if only we knew.”  Then Puddleglum speaks up and says, “I think we know.”  Eustace then asks, “Do you mean you think everything will come right if we do untie him?”  Puddleglum replies, “I don’t know about that. You see Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen.  He only told her what to do.  That fellow will be the death of us once he’s up, I shouldn’t wonder.  But that doesn’t let us off following the sign.”

            Lewis then shares this narrative,

They all stood looking at one another with bright eyes.  It was a sickening moment. “All right!” said Jill suddenly, “Let’s get it over.  Goodbye everyone…!” They all shook hands.  The Knight was screaming by now, there was foam on his cheeks. 

“Come on, Scrubb,” said Puddleglum.  He and Scrubb drew their swords and went over to the captive. 

“In the name of Aslan,” they said and began methodically cutting the cords. (From p. 145-146).

            Puddleglum had a great understand of faithfulness, faithfulness in light of uncertain outcomes.  His words are powerful, “Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen.  He only told her what to do.  That fellow will be the death of us once he’s up, I shouldn’t wonder.  But that doesn’t let us off following the sign.”

            Wow seems to be a childish and shallow thing to say here, but it’s all I got.  WOW!  Lewis brings the meaning of faith and obedience right down into the story of our own lives.  Do we have to be guaranteed good outcomes before we will follow God’s directions?  Do we have to be assured of success before we take action in the name of our God?  Is our survival the number one task of our lives? 

            Rilian’s freedom was not the last battle for Jill and Eustace and Puddleglum.  Together with Rilian they would immediately move into another battle for their lives, with outcomes unknown.  As they realize their fight wasn’t over Puddleglum asked Rilian to put on his armour, but Rilian would have nothing to do with it because, he said, “I rode in it as a movable dungeon, and it stinks of magic and slavery.  But I will take the shield.”  Lewis continues the story

He [Rilian] left the room and returned with a strange light in his eyes a moment later.

“Look, friends,” he said, holding out the shield toward them.  “An hour ago it was black and without device; and now, this.”  The shield had turned bright as silver, and on it, redder than blood or cherries, was the figure of the Lion

            “Doubtless,” said the Prince.  “This signifies that Aslan will be our good lord, whether he means us to live or die.  And all’s one, for that.  Now, by my counsel, we shall all kneel and kiss his likeness, and than all shake hands one with another, as true friends that may shortly be parted.  And then, let us descend into the City and take the adventure that is sent us.”  (167-168)

“Aslan will be our good lord, whether he means us to live or die…let us descend into the City and take the adventure that is sent us.”  No guaranteed outcomes, no promises of success, no hints at survival, just, “let us descend into the City and take the adventure that is sent us.” 

           

            In Luke 9:23 Jesus says, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (NASB).  Jesus calls us to empty ourselves of selfish ambitions and self-centered living and to come within the full embrace of His abundant life.  Alive in His life he then calls us to “descend into the City and take the adventure that is sent us.”  “The City” may mean different things to each of us.  Our “adventure” may not be the same.  It doesn’t matter because we have been embraced by grace, taken up our cross, and are caught up in whatever it might mean for us to be citizens of His kingdom. 

            What is the “adventure” sent you?  Where is Jesus taking you?  What is the name of your “City?”  Descend into it, and in the name of God take your stand and live your faith.   And, it wouldn’t hurt to remember Puddleglum’s counsel,  “You see Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen.  He only told her what to do.  That fellow will be the death of us once he’s up, I shouldn’t wonder.  But that doesn’t let us off following the sign.” 

Various and sundry outcomes don’t let us off following the sign.  Our adventure may take us to great heights.  It might take us to deep valleys.  It doesn’t matter because we have taken up our cross and are bent on following Jesus.  Now, caught up in the amazing grace of Almighty God, we entrust outcomes to Him. 

            In 1780 John Wesley presented what he called a Covenant Prayer. In that

prayer he challenged the people to pray:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt,

rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

           

            In his prayer Wesley was taking up the call of Christ to follow Him no matter what it meant.  To paraphrase Lewis, he was indicating that he was willing to descend into the City and take the adventure that was sent him.  Outcomes didn’t matter.  Success wasn’t on his agenda. “I am no longer my own, but thine,” was the prayer and commitment of his life. 

            May the prayer of our lives be “I am no longer my own, but thine.”  May it be said of us that we descended into the city and took the adventure that was sent us.”  May our prayer be, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling” (from the song, “Rock of Ages,” 1776).

Forward still

BEAUTIFULLY DIFFERENT

I haven’t figured it out yet but last weekend pastor Dave Roberts got me to either thinking or dreaming. I haven’t decided which yet, maybe both. At any rate, he took us back a couple of thousand years ago to the city of Corinth where the apostle Paul decided to plant a church.  If ever there was a difficult place to plant a church it was Corinth.  Pastor reminded us that “Corinth was every bit as diverse as the city of Los Angeles, but the diversity went well beyond where you were born or what language you spoke.  There were incredible economic differences even including slaves and free, rich and poor and everything in between.  There was a diversity of power, position, status, prestige.” 

If Las Vegas is sin city today, Corinth was then. In was secular in every sense of the word. Pastor Dave shared with us that

Corinth was unbelievably wealthy and her residents were people of great pride, independence and diversity.  With wealth comes enterprise and Corinth was a city that drew entrepreneurs from every corner of the earth.  Business boomed in Corinth and that applied to businesses built around the lower human appetites. Corinth was the original Sin City.  Overlooking the city was a temple in honor of Aphrodite.  It housed 1000 priestesses who were in Greek culture considered sacred prostitutes.  It was a city of indulgence.  Throw in the sophisticated nuances of Greek Philosophy and in Corinth almost any behavior could be celebrated or at the very least, rationalized.

In this city the church of Jesus Christ was planted.  Why would Paul choose this city?  I think he chose it because no matter the wealth or education or economic status or hedonistic passions of people, these could not speak into the deepest needs of the human heart.  People can party till they drop, but the deepest needs of the human heart go unanswered.

         In a culture defined by everything other than God, Paul plants a church and invites people of great diversity and background to gather at one table and be one family.  Around that table is great love, acceptance, forgiveness, grace, mercy, hope, laughter, purpose, and life.  Jesus invited people to partake of a new and different food, a new and different reality. The world was offering one way to live. Jesus came and offered another way to live. 

            The more I think about it the more I think Pastor Dave got me to dreaming about some things.   Wouldn’t it be great if into the chaos of life there could come peace?  Wouldn’t it be great if there could be a community where, in the midst of diversity, there could be a sense that we are in this thing called life together; that each of us matters in a special and unique way, that though we are many, because of Jesus we are one?  Wouldn’t it be great if there could be a community where the things that make for wholeness and healing and mental, spiritual, and physical health would dominate the atmosphere?  And, if that kind of community could actually exist how would those in the community reach out into the lives of those who are not in the community inviting them into the place and people of new beginnings and God-stirred possibilities?

As the community of Jesus we have Good News for our world and for our spheres of influence.  But we live in Corinth of the 21^st century.  People are busy and active and on the go.  They work hard and play hard.  They are tuned into their world, and gaining an audience with them is a most difficult thing to do.  They are distracted by a thousand voices calling out to them each and every day.  They are occupied with entertainment and sports and vacations and get-a-ways.  In our Corinth the world never sleeps.  It is on the go 24/7. How do we gain an audience with these busy people and share the Good News?

            For the apostle Paul the answer to the question was simple, yet grounded in selflessness, self-giving, and humility.  He was an intelligent man and he knew that ministry for Christ in Corinth would not be easy.  He didn’t expect it to be.  So, he went to work with a guiding principle leading the effort.  He explained it this way in 1 Corinthians 9:19–23.

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (NIV) 

            This makes me think that maybe the way to people’s hearts these days is relational, relational, and relational.  Get into their world. Identify with them.  Build relationships.  Get to know them.  Show up on their turf and love them there. Find out what interests them and become interested in it, too.   Saturate your relationship with prayer for them.  Earn the right and then find ways to share the Gospel.  The Message says, “Proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don’t ever quit. Just keep it simple” (2 Tim. 4:2).  As the New International Version says, “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”  In other words, just go out and be Christian.

Be the message before you speak the message. Isn’t that what Paul is saying?   “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”  Why this approach?    Because we live in a Biblically uninformed age, and many people don’t have the vocabulary of the Church or the Bible at their disposal.  We are living in an age where in many cases we have to start at ground zero and earn our way into the lives of people who do desperately need God but don’t know that it is God they need.  For some, there is a built-in resistance and hostility to the Gospel.  This is a whole new set of challenges.  Rushing into their lives with lots of words can do more damage than good. 

How do we be the church in our Corinth?  I’m sure there are as many answers to that question as there are Christians asking them.  I am also sure that God is more interested in reaching lost and broken people then you and I are.  In that light I would say that the most important things you and I can do in an effort to become all things to all people so that by all possible means we might save some, is to

1.    Get ourselves into the throne room of grace, and pray the Holy Spirit will find ways to break into the lives of people in ways that will draw them to life in Jesus.  This assignment is bigger than you or me.  We need God.

2.    Saturate our lives in the Word of God because “the word of God is alive and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews. 4:12, NIV).

3.    Keep our eyes fixed on Jesus “the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2, NIV).  He is the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6, NIV).  Stay close to Jesus, trust Him, keep your eyes fixed on Him. 

4.    Trust that God is more interested in reaching people than you and me.  Trust His love.  Trust His heart.  Trust His compassion.  Trust His work on the cross.  It is not about you and me.  It is about God loving the world so much that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life and have it to the full (John 3:16 and 10:10).

5.    Live the message before you try to articulate it. As someone once said, “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”  It might just come down to this.  CARE. 

6.    Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in you.  Live an attractive life for God.  Be a fragrant aroma of Christ (Ephesians 5:2, 2 Corinthians 2:15).

7.    Let God be God.  Only God can draw people to Himself.  Live the life of one embraced by grace. Leave results to God.

“I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some…. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”

-- I Cor. 9:22, Romans 1:16

CHRISTIANS AS COUNTER CULTURE

“I have strength for everything in the One who gives me power.”  This is how the Weymouth translation of Philippians 4:13 reads.  Pastor Scott Chamberlain spoke on this verse last weekend, and got me to thinking about “power.” It started as a thought but it soon became a question – on whom or what do I depend for power? A variety of answers flooded my thinking: Myself? Training?  Skills? Talents? Experience?  Charisma?  Savvy?  Personality? God? 

In our culture we glorify self-sufficiency.  Frank Sinatra’s song, “I Did It My Way,” is the unwritten but very real mantra of countless numbers of people.  Out of control egos have amazing ways to let it be known to others that it is “My way or the highway.”  Narcissism is everywhere.  Many people seem to really believe that the universe actually revolves around them.

On whom or what do we depend?  Truth is that in a very real way all of the above answers are correct at given times.  We are called to lose ourselves in the wonder that is God and to take to Him what is given us, and trust His faithfulness in everything.  In Christ we can trust ourselves, training, skills, talents, experience, charisma, savvy, and personality.  The question is whether or not we are in Christ, and just who controls who we are.   After all, God made us, and as Ethel Waters used to say, “God don’t make no junk.” 

Trouble arises when we begin to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (See Romans 12:3).  When we place ourselves at the center of the universe calling all the shots, directing the universe as to how to be present for us, or living with an exaggerated view of our self-importance, the road to ruin has been entered.  Slippery slopes are everywhere. 

Jesus brings a new and different way of us going about our lives, doing what we are called up on to do, and living lives that are beyond ourselves.  He calls us to pray and then to living out the implications of the prayer, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9-10, NIV).  When people live in the ramifications of this prayer they testify, “I have strength for everything in the One who gives me power.” 

Having strength for everything.  What an interesting thought. It is a strength not founded on our own self-sufficiency but on another, Jesus, “the One who gives me power.”  As mentioned earlier our culture edifies self-sufficiency. Our heroes are those who started with nothing and made it big time.  We love underdog stories of those who shouldn’t have made it but did.  Sadly, this narrative seems to be the only narrative for some.  They don’t need God, they say.  God is for weak people.  God is for losers.  Winners have all it takes to make it big in the world, they say.  The mantra of those who would have nothing to do with God is, “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul” (from “Invictus” by William Henley; 1849-1903). 

The ego of those who say they don’t need God is just another form of narcissism.  It is interesting to me that many people have a deep need to be head honcho.   If they aren’t given the appreciation they feel they deserve, they fume and fret.  They see themselves as the center around which everything revolves.  Periodically they find ways to let us all know that we need to adjust our lives to their ways and to tune our lives to the music of their lives.  It is a silly way to live but many people do find ways to live there.

In the ways and means of God an interesting reality unfolds.  While the human condition clamors to be like God, Jesus Christ

Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross.     (Philippians 2:6-8, NIV)

While human beings want to be God, God becomes a man.  It is a complete role reversal.  We want to be God and we do all we can to make sure that the world gives us what we think we deserve.  God, on the other hand, steps out of His surroundings as God “made himself nothing…being made in human likeness…becoming obedient to death…on a cross.”

What kind of God would do that?  God’s don’t die on crosses.  People die on crosses.  God’s don’t die for others.  Others die for the gods.  Just what kind of God do we have in Jesus Christ?  We have a God, the One true God, who is raised up from the dead so powerfully and sovereignly and eternally that it is said, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  Questions are asked, “Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?”  Proclamations are made, “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:54-56, NIV).

When Paul says of himself something he invites us to say, too, he says it on the basis of what he knows in Christ.  In a wonderful act of amazing grace we realize again that we are in the presence of God, God who loves us so fully and freely that His presence literally changes our lives.  “I have strength for everything in the One who gives me power.”  We realize there is only one God, and that we are not Him.  We realize that God invites us into His life where His power becomes the strength we need to live and move and have our being in this world. 

In his book, With God in The Crucible, Peter Storey who pastored for years in South Africa, during the days of apartheid, and who is now Professor Emeritus at Duke University has a wonderful message entitled, Let God Be God!  In this message Storey writes,

…the Church must be the Church.  Jesus brought into being an entirely new, radically different community, offering people a citizenship transcending the frontiers of nations and contrasting powerfully with the norms around it.  The Church is not simply another institution in society, nor is it an extension of the traditions of any one nation….

The Church must be different from, and often over against and in contradiction to, the ways of all nations.  That alternative identity must be cherished and guarded as the most important characteristic of the Church.  The richest gift the Church can give the world is to be different from it.  It must be a constant irritant that the world doesn’t want, but cannot do without.” (Abington Press: Nashville, 2002)

Storey then shares a personal word of experiences in South Africa.  He writes,

           

When we were cast out of the corridors of power and disowned and vilified by the state, at first we saw it as a loss of influence.  But in that loss we found our souls and rediscovered our identity.  We were set free from the false patriotism that worships the nation’s idols.  We found instead a higher patriotism that determined to hold the nation accountable to the Kingdom of God and God’s justice before everything else.   

           

I embrace what Storey says, and I believe that he is on to something rooted and grounded in Scripture, and offers us a way of being the salt and light of Jesus in the world, in a way that is uniquely of Jesus.   In this world we can live and truthfully say, “I have strength for everything in the One who gives me power.”  We can live in the life of God.  We can be an alternative community in a world whose citizens don’t have much room for God.  We can be the people who pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Then we can live our lives reflecting what it means to pray such a prayer and to live for our God whose name is hallowed. 

            As I walked away from worship last Sunday in my heart I kept repeating. “Don’t focus on “I.” Don’t focus on “strength.”  Don’t focus on “power.”  Focus on “the One.”  Focus on Jesus.  He is “the way and the truth and and the life” (John 14:6).  Trust Him.  Follow Him.  

May our mantra be, “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:54-56).