The Midweek Encounter

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Getting Grace

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

When we read the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, we may not immediately want to identify with either of main characters. Taxes aren’t generally very popular, so anything associated with them gets a bad rap, and especially the tax collectors in Jesus’ day. As for the Pharisees, Jesus repeatedly warned his followers to not be like them, and the Pharisees were some of the people who ultimately saw to it that Jesus be crucified.

Unfortunately, we can’t continue not identifying with either of the characters for long. Personally, I found myself muttering “Oh crap” under my breath as Pastor Dirk described the actions of the Pharisee. Because if I’m going to be one of the characters in this story, it would definitely be that guy.

I’m pretty involved at Encounter—I write these Midweeks (clearly), I’m a youth leader, I facilitate the Women & Wine group, and a few other things. None of those are bad, but they also aren’t going to get me to heaven. They don’t make me any more or less holy than someone who’s involved in eighteen church activities or someone who hasn’t been to church in years. We can do years and years of good service, both in the church and out, but none of it counts in regards to our eternal salvation.

Photo Credit: Flickr User kelly.sikkema, Creative Commons

All the work in the world won’t get us to heaven, which is at the same time deeply freeing and deeply terrifying. It’s only through God’s grace that anyone, ever, gets declared righteous in his eyes.

This is what the Pharisee in Luke 18 did not understand. Instead of receiving the gift of grace, he ran after religious accomplishments that could be counted and totaled up to prove that he was worthy. Though he tried to make himself sound humble, he ended up doing the exact opposite, showing how proud he was of his accomplishments—accomplishments that could never achieve what he wanted them to. I’m kind of with the Pharisee on this one—there’s a part of me that thinks it would be nice, or at least a lot easier, if there was a “Get to Heaven” checklist with certain accomplishments to tick off.
• Pray every day and really mean it
• Read the entire Bible
• Love your neighbor
• Lead a Bible study
• Go to church every week
Check them all off, and it’s an automatic “Salvation card” for us. Except that’s not how gifts work.

The tax collector, on the other hand, had done so many wrong things he knew the only way he could become right with God was not through his own doing, but through God’s. He humbled himself to a place of knowing he’d done wrong and, if anything was going to change, the first move would need to come from God.

That’s how God works—he makes the first move in saving us.

Grace is a gift, and gifts can’t be manipulated or controlled, only received. I would much rather have it be something I can understand and control, can work harder to achieve for myself, than have it be so wildly out of my control. It’s also one of the beautiful things about grace, though. It’s so much bigger than us, so much purer than anything our human selves are capable of offering, so much more powerful than we’ll ever really understand. So while we can’t earn grace, we can receive it and offer back our thanks.

[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Trading Good for Best

If someone called me shrewd, I don’t think I’d take it entirely as a compliment. There’s a cleverness that goes with being shrewd, but also a kind of sneaky underhandedness I’d rather not be associated with. So in Luke 16:1-9, when Jesus is essentially telling his followers to be shrewd, it’s a direction that doesn’t quite make sense to me.

Photo Credit: Flickr User Holly Norval, Creative Commons

The manager tells at least two people to short change his boss, seemingly so that he, the manager, can benefit from it. When his boss finds out, instead of being furious over being cheated out of four hundred and fifty gallons of oil and two hundred bushels of wheat, the boss applauds how the manager shrewdly planned for the future. While there is still much about this story I don’t fully understand, I think there is a piece that I’ve begun to: His methods may not be the most applause-worthy, but the manager is planning for the future, not focused on the now.

With this story, Jesus isn’t telling us to be shrewd with just anything—he’s telling us to be shrewd with the things that matter. In order to do this, we first have to have a right understanding of what “things that matter” really are. To put it simply, most of what we can physically taste, touch, or smell probably doesn’t qualify. Money, cars, houses, phones, and so many of the things we strive after and spend our time on simply aren’t worth it. Jesus is telling us to be shrewd about spending our lives in pursuit of real, lasting goodness, not the fleeting goodness we’re so accustomed to. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

This week, maybe we need to spend time evaluating how well our lives reflect our understanding of eternal significance. It doesn’t necessarily mean we need to get rid of all our possessions and spend all our time praying and reading the Bible, because we do still need to live on this earth for as long as God allows us to—but maybe we do need to reprioritize a few things. A lot of good, honorable things demand our time, talent, and treasure, but sometimes even good things need to go when they get in the way. Whether it’s how we spend our money, the way we treat our family, friends, and coworkers, or the things we devote our time to, would others be able to tell by looking at them that our true goal in life isn’t to simply live as comfortably and easily as possible?

Are we spending on good things, or the best things?

It might be a hobby that’s gotten out of hand, a relationship that’s become unhealthy, or anything else preventing us from focusing on the ultimate treasure we have in Christ. The sacrifice of getting rid of it may feel like too much, but we can trust that God will fill the seeming hole in our lives with something even better—more of himself.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Invitations

“Who is God for?” Is there a more wrestled with question in life? In the parable of the Great Banquet this week, we found Jesus sitting at the dinner table of a Pharisee. (Luke 14:15-24) Sometime during the meal, Jesus was asked a very similar question, which Pastor Dirk rephrased as “Who is God for?” The Jewish believers around the table were expecting a particular answer. If we had the courage to ask Jesus the same question, we might also have an answer in mind.

Photo Credit: Flickr user Vilseskogen

Some of us might feel a bit behind the game, unready for Jesus. We know Christians who seem to have it all together – serving on every ministry team with ease, reading their Bible in Greek, teaching their kids hymns instead of Taylor Swift – and so we feel un-together. Our culture, and especially our Christian sub-culture, doesn’t highly value messy people. So sometimes we just act like it’s all together; but if we can take a humble look at our lives, we know we’re a mess. We are undeserving of Jesus.

In this parable, Jesus tells us that we – the messy, undeserving leftovers – are invited! We are the ones He chases down and beckons to come and feast!

Tucked away in the Old Testament is a real story from King David’s life that sheds some light on this idea. King Saul sinned and was rejected by God, so God sent Samuel to anoint David as the next king. Sometime later, he killed Goliath and became widely beloved and praised. In fact, his popularity made Saul (still king) so jealous that he wanted David killed. So David fled, all alone, to the desert and hid in a cave.

“All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader.” (1 Samuel 22:2) Like Snow White, his cave was filled with Dopey and Sleepy and Grumpy; unfortunately he was missing Happy and Doc. (I’m not sure where Sneezy and Bashful fit in this analogy!) David didn’t start off his leadership with a group of strong, wise, upstanding guys. It was a bunch of outlaws, debtors, and grumps. And David, a man after God’s heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22), doesn’t turn them away, but transforms them into his best men, his circle of trust, his go-to guys. They weren’t the guys David needed; they were the guys who needed Him.

And so it is with us at God’s table. He doesn’t need us there; we don’t bring anything He doesn’t already have. He’s not hoping we’ll bring our proverbial Jell-O salad or famous cookies. We’re invited to the table because we desperately need Him, and He graciously provides more than we could ever ask for.

What good news for all of us who are still in progress and not all together! This is the gospel – the good news – that Jesus has come for the messy; the physician comes to heal the sick, not those who are well.

(There is a caution here for us good-at-church folks: If we feel like we deserve an invitation based on our church attendance or checklist of good works, we are like the first three guests. Do we tally our attempts at righteousness, while ignoring our humanness and depravity, and then feel entitled to an audience with Him? And since we feel like we deserve an invitation, do we put God off until later, holding back from Him until we’re older or married? Until the kids grow up or we’ve settled into our house and job? Until we’ve paid off our student loans or our mortgage?

Let us not miss the invitation!

Let’s not eat the hors d’oeuvres of the kingdom while declining the invitation to the Banquet!)

Or perhaps we are a bit further down the road with Jesus; we know that we know that we know that we’re going to the feast – we are more like the servant in this story. When we ask Jesus “Who are you for?” we’re thinking about the people we might hesitate to invite. We like to invite people who mostly have it together, and are just missing Jesus. Instead we hear Him send us to the complicated, unclean, and not-so-nice; messy people. Undeserving people. People who will laugh at us when we invite them. People who might mock us. His invitation is for those who will need to be encouraged, to be compelled. If they are going to believe that He is a God who loves and desires the undeserving, we will have to love them as they don’t deserve. We will have to love them with His love. Nothing less will convince them that they are invited and desired, messy as they are, to His table.

“Who is God for?” What answer do you anticipate?

God is for the broken, the messy, the unexpected, the hurting. He does not require our self-perfection or readiness; He desires that we need Him and that we want Him; that we rest in His love and feast at His table.

[Robin Bupp is married to Caleb, and they are from many places east of the Mississippi (but are calling Michigan home for the foreseeable future). A former high school science teacher, Robin is slowly turning the two Bupp kiddos into tiny nerds while they teach her lots of things, including humility and patience.]

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Happily Ever After

A short time after Caleb and I began dating, he heard some “excellent” relationship advice that he just had to share with me: “Run hard and fast toward Jesus; if out of the corner of your eye, you see someone else running the same way, that’s someone to consider.” And I thought to myself, “am I about to be dumped for not reading my Bible enough?!”

I’m pretty sure I said something like, “That’s exactly how we found each other!” and then immediately redirecting the conversation. Perhaps you’ve been in a similar situation where your mouth says you love God first and most, but your actions show that your heart is otherwise ordered.

I was running toward Caleb. I definitely loved Jesus, but finding a boyfriend/husband seemed to be a much more tangible goal than growing a relationship with God. There really was a part of me that wanted God to be first in my life, the part that admired missionaries in foreign countries, people who were planning to go to seminary, and girls who woke up early for quiet time instead of mirror time; that part of me knew this was excellent advice. And there was another part of me, the part that likes romantic comedies, flowers and chocolate, and Caleb; that part of me was winning.

Similar advice is distilled by the writer of Proverbs in a few verses found at the very end of chapter 31.

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30

Charm is a cover up. If you’re covering up what’s underneath, you’re probably not hiding a kind heart and God-loving spirit. Beauty is attractive, but gravity and biology will eventually win: things stretch and sag (that tattoo won’t be in the same place when you’re 70…), hair turns gray, and wrinkles replace tan lines. Relationships built on temporal, worldly things will quickly fail to satisfy.

Photo Credit: Flickr user Jelle Drok

We can hear all of that, though, and still miss the point: the writer isn’t directing us to a better form of love, rather to a different object of our love. He confronts our cultural norms; movies, sitcoms, dramas and lifestyle magazines promote the idea that romantic love is the ultimate human endeavor. The false promise is that the right person will fill all our empty places, repair all of our pot holes – someone who makes us feel happily ever after. No human can live up to that standard.

If the focus of your life is finding ultimate satisfaction in a mate, it will be a bumpy and unsatisfying ride. Earlier in Proverbs 31 the writer describes an ideal spouse; if you read those verses, you will discover that being the perfect spouse is an impossible standard! Instead of attempting perfection and failing, we are invited to acknowledge that we don’t come close to measuring up, but that Jesus measures up perfectly. The holes and missteps and places we lack in marriage – or in anything – should drive us to Him.

Some years of marriage (not even a ton! Just some!) have revealed the not-so-secret secret that Caleb cannot be everything to me. He is wonderful, self-sacrificing, deeply loving and caring; but he is also flawed, finite, and limited in time and power. God, however, is infinite; He is able to meet all of my needs. He is perfect! God is the creator of needs, and the fulfiller. He is the only one who can repair our pot holes and fill our empty places. Marriage is His design, and it is undoubtedly a blessing to be enjoyed; but it is not the ultimate thing. He is. He was. He always will be.

Whenever we put something in God’s place, the idol we create will disappoint us. Normally we think of idols as really bad things like hoarding wealth, power, or pleasure. Marriage is a sneaky idol, because desiring a good marriage is not a bad! But John Calvin would tell us, “The evil in our desire typically does not lie in what we want, but that we want it too much.” Even the best marriage will never fulfill us in the way that God can.

Pastor Dirk boiled the author’s advice down to a few questions: what is your perspective? Do you fear God and have your eyes on Him? Is your happily ever after in His kingdom that is coming? Are you being transformed by the Spirit to be more like Christ? If so, marriages (and the process of finding someone to marry!) will be positively affected by the new creation you are becoming.

So how do you get to 40 years of bliss? Not by finding the perfect mate, becoming the perfect mate, or by trying to perfect the one you have. Rather, by encouraging one another as you run the good race, pressing on toward the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24, Philippians 3:14) Encourage each other not to be better spouses, but more faithful servants of the Most High God.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

How To Be a Friend Like Jesus

As a child, I loved books about the kind of friends who lived in the same neighborhood and walked and rode their bikes to each other’s houses. They had dinner at each other’s houses, made forts in each other’s backyards, played games both inside and out, and generally enjoyed being friends. These, I determined, were the kinds of friends I wanted to have.

Photo Credit: Flickr User sloanpix, Creative Commons

It’s easy to focus on the good, fun parts of friendship. Some friendships may never get beyond that level, which isn’t entirely a bad thing—it’s good to have a variety of friends, as long as we know which ones are the ones we can trust with the larger matters of life. If relationships are going to be worth having though, we must also have the kind of friendships that form and shape us into better versions of ourselves—the kind that involve tough conversations where both people walk away a little frustrated, while at the same time knowing a good, holy thing just happened. As Proverbs 2:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” We need to have people in our lives that are willing to engage in the sometimes awkward and painful work of showing us areas of our lives that aren’t reflecting Christ like they should be.

What we sometimes forget is that as important as it is to choose good friends who help us become better people, it’s equally important to be a good friend. Fortunately, the Bible gives us a great person to emulate when it comes to being a friend. His name is Jesus.

The actions of Jesus—his love, patience, kindness, grace, and more—are all important ingredients to being a good friend. We can’t expect people to extend those same things to us if we’re not willing to lavishly gift them to other people. Friendships need some measure of reciprocity, with each party giving and neither doing all the taking. It can be easy to spot when other people are doing all the taking in a relationship, but more difficult to see when we’re the ones taking more than is healthy. Just as Jesus was generous with his wisdom, love, and time, we need to be willing to be generous with our friends as well.

Of course, another thing we learn from Jesus about being a friend is that he also wasn’t afraid to deliver the hard truths. Jesus knew the way for his friends to live better lives was for them to follow him, and following him meant acknowledging their sin. It’s never comfortable to have our shortcomings pointed out to us, but, when it’s done with the right attitude and in a fitting way, it can actually be an act of care. If our friendships are truly going to be the type that makes both parties better, we have to be willing to say the hard words when they’re needed. And, in turn, we have to be ready to accept those hard words when we need them.

Friendships like these aren’t born overnight, nor should they be. Not everyone needs to be invited into the deep corners of our lives. But I absolutely believe that everyone should have at least a friend or two who are invited into those messy places of our lives we often keep hidden. Making friends, especially these deep, meaningful, life-shaping ones, isn’t a slow or easy process, but a friendship is a relationship unlike any other, with its own unique value. They are more than worth investing time and energy into, because, when they’re good, both people will be changed for the better because of it.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Life in the Middle

I love the Olympics--more than is probably natural or perhaps even healthy. While I’ll watch pretty much any event, gymnastics, and in particular the balance beam, is one one of my favorites. As a kid, I even asked my dad to build me a (very low) balance beam, and I quickly discovered how difficult it really is. One slight misstep and I was flailing wildly or on the ground.

Finding contentment often feels much the same way. It’s easy to get caught in the mentality of “a little more.” We have a job that pays the bills, but what if we got paid a little more? The apartment or house is adequate, but what if we had a little more space? Our car is solid, but what if we had one with a little more class? Contentment seems ever-elusive--we may get close to it, but never fully grasp it.

In Proverbs 30:7-9, the writer is wise enough to realize how easily we can fall off the balance beam of contentment. Verses 7-9 read:

“Two things I ask of you, Lord;

Photo Credit: Flickr User margiee329, Creative Commons

do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.”

The writer knows we are prone to forget God when things go well, and prone to resort to drastic measures when things are not going well. So instead, he asks for the kind of life that is lived on a balance beam--never falling into excess on one side or lack on the other. It’s not a life of striving after “a little more,” but taking stock of what we have for each day and seeing the goodness in that.

It’s about realizing that having comes with responsibility, because ultimately it all belongs to God.

With responsibility comes the opportunity to share what we have with others. It seems counterintuitive that by giving away what we have we may come to find contentment, but in the kingdom of God, things don’t always work the way we’re used to. When we give as an expression of gratitude for what we do have, even if what we have doesn’t feel like very much, we place ourselves in a spot to be reminded that we don’t stay on the balance beam of contentment through our own work, but by the grace of God.

If it was just up to us, we’d have a terrible time getting anywhere near contentment. The writer in Proverbs knows this, which is why he asks the Lord for only his daily bread, as a means to learn continued reliance on God. Our own work can’t make us content or willingly generous, but as we seek God and he draws us near to him, he graciously gives us gifts like contentment and generosity. We have to be willing to hear his call to accept these things and then obey, recognizing that a life lived in the middle can be a beautiful one.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Your Work Matters

The summer after I graduated from college, I had a part-time job that filled 20 hours of my week. Most of the rest of my time was spent sleeping, reading, or watching TV. It was not my finest time of life.

Up until that point, my identity had been that of “Student,” and I was comfortable with it. The Christian schools I attended did a good job of reminding us that being a student was work, and as such, we should approach it as a way to bring honor to God in the way that we learned and studied. Once that goal was gone, my 20 hours of work a week didn’t feel like much, and I was at a loss as to what to do with all my time (besides applying for jobs I was grossly underqualified for). I had lost sight of the fact that God cares about all of our work, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional work, whether it takes place in a classroom, an office, a living room, a backyard, or anywhere else.

Photo Credit: Flickr User Brick Wares, Creative Commons

We often get caught up in thinking God cares very much about what kind of work we’re doing. Sure, he likes it when students study hard, he likes people who work at churches and nonprofits, and he likes when parents read their kids Bible stories. But accounting or scooping ice cream? Filling out job applications and not getting call backs? Sometimes it feels like God probably doesn’t care much about those things.

I love the way The Message translation words Galatians 6:4-5 (emphasis added): “Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.”

We don’t all have the same work to do, but God cares about all the kinds—from the unglamorous tasks like cleaning bathrooms and taking the trash out, to moments that have glimpses of weightier purpose, like reading a bedtime story or bringing a meal to a sick friend. It might be the emotional work of having a difficult conversation, or spiritual work of making sure we’re regularly connecting with God and a Christian community. In God’s eyes, all of this work matters. Each kind is different, but significant in its own way. He cares much less about the kind of work we do than how we do it.

The book of Proverbs warns us to not be like the sluggard who sits around all day, but to be like the ant who works diligently and prepares for what’s to come. Neglecting or refusing to work comes with very real consequences, whether it’s physically in the form of lack or resources, or spiritually or emotionally in the form of broken relationships or bad decisions. Full-time jobs are great for some people, but they’re not the only way of glorifying God through work.

Whether we recognize it or not, everyday moments of work are ripe with possibility to be holy moments. God’s grace is woven through all that we do. If I could redo the summer after I graduated from college, I would find much better, more productive things to do with my time—whether through volunteering, writing, or the messy work of thinking through how God made me and what that means for his calling on my life. Instead of allowing ourselves to become sluggards, any of those options and so many more can become powerful ways of glorifying God through our good work.