Crazy the Lord

I've been reading a great book called "The Underground Church" by Robin Meyers. In the first chapter, the author spent some time talking about the initial reactions of family, friends and authority toward Jesus, particularly in Mark 3: 20ff. This really got to me. I started thinking about it more and more, and it resulted in being the focus of my reflection offered recently at a gathering in Maine. Below is the text. If you'd like anything further explained (like the whole "turn the other cheek" bit), let me know and I'll elaborate. Enjoy....

Crazy like Jesus

Mark 3: 20 - 22

Remember when you got your cross on Sunday afternoon on your Walk? Do you remember what was said to you as you received it? [Christ is counting on you]

And remember what you said in response? [And I’m counting on Christ]

I was thinking - for what is Christ counting on us - and for what are we counting on Christ?

We could probably run up a pretty good list. We count on Christ for grace, love, strength, mercy, compassion, hope, for his presence in our lives - we could go on.

And Christ is counting on us: for faithfulness, service, love of God and neighbor, obedience, compassion, forgiveness - again, we could go on.

But I wonder, no matter how long we spent coming up with things for either list, whether we would ever get to the point where we put the word “crazy” on the list. As in, Christ, we count on you to be crazy and you are counting on us to be crazy as well.

Here’s the thing - of all the things people have said about Jesus - about who he is and what he’s about, one thing that everyone around Jesus agree on was that he was crazy. 

Here in Mark, his family and friends show up to restrain him - to grab him - Greek - to use physical strength - to drag his sorry butt home to shut him up. Why? Because they thought he was “existemi” - out of his mind. Crazy!

Then the scribes and Pharisees show up and add fuel to the fire. These are the professionals. They make a living making this call: Jesus is possessed. He’s got demons. He’s goofy in the head. Off his rocker. Today we might use nicer language - he is mentally ill. This accusation continues all through the gospels. Jesus, and by association his disciples, are out of their minds. Crazy. Even Paul - when he was brought before King Agrippa and gave defense for his actions, Agrippa said to Paul: You are out of your mind!

Biblical scholars tell us that when you run across something in the text that is both uncomplimentary and shows up consistently - it’s probably the closest you can get to the real story. 

Why this accusation? What’s so crazy about Jesus?

Several years ago Len Sweet wrote a book called “Jesus drives me crazy” in which he rattled off a summary of what Jesus taught that was “crazy.” Jesus taught:

The way up is down.

The way in is out.

The way first is last.

The way to success is service.

The way of strength is weakness. 

The way of life is the way of death - death to self, to society, to family.

Want to get even with your enemies? Bless them and love them.

[Explain “turn the other cheek.”]

Crazy. People called Jesus - and his first followers - crazy - demon-possessed - because they spoke - and lived a different way of life. A life Jesus called “the kingdom of God” - or “the kingdom of heaven” - the reign of God. It called into question almost every priority and every structure and every system around him. 

• He challenged the temple system.
• He challenged the violence of the empire. (BTW: did you know that for first 200 years of the church, you couldn’t be baptized unless you vowed to never join the military? AND, if you made this vow, you were called an atheist by the culture around you?) What would the world look like if the 3 billion people who professed Christ still lived like this?
• He challenged the entitlement enjoyed by the rich and powerful.
• He challenged the disconnect between worship and service.
• He challenged the legalist ways religious people demonstrated generosity.
• He afflicted the comfortable and comforted the afflicted.
• He hung out with the lowest, the least and the marginalized. If someone was considered to be on the fringe of society, he ran in their direction.

And they called him crazy. And eventually some people did lay hands on him. They did restrain him. They tried to shut him up. They tried to prove he was out of his mind and they were the sane ones.

That was Friday. But Sunday morning came. And on that day, Love won. On that day, crazy was shown to be the way of life God intended after all.

So what about us? For those of us who claim to follow this Jesus (and I’m not going to assume everyone here has signed up for this), if someone were to look at our lives - look at the rhythm and activities of our lives as followers of Jesus - is anyone calling us crazy?

I love coming to things like candlelight - but frankly, this is easy. Loving the pilgrims is easy. Am I also willing to love when it isn’t so easy? What about loving people I don’t like? What about loving that family member that drives you crazy, or maybe haven’t spoken to in years? What about Red Sox fans loving Yankees fans and vice versa? What about Republicans loving Democrats and Democrats loving Republicans? What about gay people loving straight people and straight loving gay? Of course, our primary identification is changed once we've given allegiance to Christ - no more Jew, Greek, male, female, etc. So shouldn't Christian be even better at this?!

If someone were to comment on the way you love neighbor and enemy, would anyone call you crazy? Are you running to stand by the side of those being pushed to the margins? I’m thinking I’m not crazy enough. How about you?

Most pastors today spend 80 - 90% of their time taking care of things related to church - mostly worship. Pastors - what if you adopted the ways of Jesus and investing your best time in raising up a group of leaders who can then raise up new leaders, and then spent a majority of your time in the community, creating new relationships? You know your getting crazy enough when you starting getting complaints!

What about resisting the ways of violence and refusing to support policies that continue to perpetuate violence, ever increasing budgets for the ways of war? It’s interesting that pretty much only the Amish and Mennonites offer a consistent voice against violence - and yet, how does the world see them? Heck, how does much of the church see them?

Let me really step on toes. If someone were to find out the level of your generosity when it came to your giving to God, would anyone call you crazy?

Earlier this year a report came out on the charitable giving trends, state by state. I just want to give you the bottom six, heading toward the lowest:

CT

RI

MA

VT

ME

NH

3% or less for each state. Doesn’t sound too crazy at all.

Len Sweet tells a story at the end of his book about a friend who helped lead music for a VBS. One song in particular became a favorite: Praise ye the Lord. You know - hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord.

So one morning this guy asks the kids what they wanted to sing and one little boy shouts out: Crazy the Lord. The guy was confused. “We haven’t sung a song called that this week.”

The boy answered, “Sure we have. It goes ‘Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, halleluhah, CRAZY the Lord!”

Here’s my challenge - my prayer - taht we let that become our song.

Crazy the Lord. Crazy about loving, crazy about caring, crazy about giving, crazy about loving our neighbor, crazy about non-violence, crazy for this Jesus who is absolutely crazy for us!

You can do nothing

This is for the scriptural geeks out there, so if trying to understand this crazy book called the Bible a little better isn't your thing, keep on going. However, if you get bugged by what's in there like I do - hang around. It might be interesting.

I've had this particular scripture eating at me for a few days. It's bugging me enough that my reflection requires more than a tweet or FB post. It's from John 15. I heard someone preach on it. This was before the hurricane and all the attention it got, but ironically, the power outage gave me some time to reflect and dig more deeply.

The point of contention is John 15:5b, which typically translated says, "because apart from me you can do nothing." So the preacher to whom I'm listening says this verse in the context of the message, but then immediately says, "Well, not that we can't do anything. We can do some things." And then goes off on a rather watered down description of the things we can do - apparently without needing to do any of the abiding previously mentioned. In other words, we can do lots of things and abiding, whatever that might mean, doesn't really matter.

So I went digging. In particular, I went to the Greek to see what John put on paper. Fascinating stuff. Here it is: "o¢ti cwri«ß e˙mouv ouj du/nasqe poiei√n oujde÷n." It's the final three words that really tell what going on. The third from the last word comes from the root "dunamai" - same word where we get dynamo or dynamite. It means "to be able" or "to have the power to." The second to last word is "poieo" and it means to do or to make, but can also, given the right context (like John 15!) mean "to abide." It's also a word used to refer back to the previous action mentioned, which in this case, is "abide." The last word means "nothing, none or at all." To put this all together, a legitimate translation of this verse could be "because apart from me you (plural, as in "ya'all") do not have the power to abide at all" or "you do not even have the power to abide."

So then, put this all together beginning with verse 4 you get this: "Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you (plural) do not have the power to abide at all." (or, as I wrote above, "do not even have the power to abide."  In other words, if we are not staying connected to Christ, forget about bearing fruit - we aren't even going to be able to stay on the vine! I think the difference is significant, as well as making the paragraph internally consistent. 

There - I feel better. My theological itch has been scratched. Feel free to comment.

Today's featured NESCD speaker: Ken Sloane

Ken Sloane, Director of Stewardship Leadership Ministries in Nashville TN leads a workshop entitled "Creating a Culture of Generosity."

Have you noticed that in some congregations talking about money doesn't seem to be the "taboo" that it is in other congregations? Why is it that for some stewardship is a bad-tasting medicine and in other places it is a cause for joy and celebration. Join us as we look at some of the elements that help create the culture of generosity in churches. Register at Super Early Bird prices by going to www.newenglandschool.org. Also, connect with the School on Facebook.

Today's featured speaker: Paul NIxon

Paul leads a workshop called "Ten Good Reasons Why You Want a New Church Plant in Your Community." So you've heard a new church is planning to start in your community. What's your church's initial reaction? Are the leaders upset? Would they welcome it but do it with a feeling of resignation (since they can't change the fact that it's coming anyway)? Would they be excited? It turns out, they should be excited, and there are many good reasons you want a new church to start in your area. In this workshop, you'll have a chance to hear how new churches can be beneficial to your own ministry, and how you can teach your churches how to embrace the new thing in town. Register for Super Early Bird prices at www.newenglandschool.org 

Today's featured NESCD speaker: Seok Hwan Hong

District Superintendent of the Rhode Island-Southeastern Massachusetts area Seok Hwan Hong will lead a workshop entitled "Spirit led, Spirit fed small grouping for Vital Congregations."

Without vital spirituality there can be no vital congregations. ---The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better persons…The church needs persons whom the Holy Spirit can use-persons of prayer, persons mighty in prayer.- (E.Bounds, Power through Prayer)  We should not seek better techniques for the growth of the church but to nurture humble followers of Jesus Christ and humble leaders, and not be a reactive plan to save our denomination but a movement to restore vital and biblical church again. Spirit-fed and Spirit-led small group within the church can be a starting point for recovering vital congregation again. This workshop is about helping people form a healthy small grouping in many ways. 

Featured NESCD speaker: Steve Murray

Steve Murray, Pastor of The Rock Ministries in Sandown and Plaistow NH and Amesbury, MA offers a workshop entitled: "Developing a creative team for worship ministry."

Worship is the first point of entry for many seekers.  It is also the single greatest opportunity we have each week to reach and disciple our existing congregation.   As both an opportunity for evangelism and discipleship, a well crafted, creative, engaging worship service is one of the most important thing we do.   Whether in a more traditional or more contemporary worship setting, a creative approach to worship, and particularly the message, that is team driven can bring a renewed vitality to the worship experience. This workshop will help you do that. Register for Super Early Bird prices at www.newenglandschool.org

Featured SCD speaker: John Mueller

Pastor the Trinity UMC in Springfield, MA, John Mueller will lead a workshop called "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." Using Trinity Church, Springfield, MA as a case study, participants will be invited to reflect upon their own local context and how their setting might be calling them into deeper community ministry by partnering with neighborhood institutions.  Conversation will take place on how best to build these partnerships, potential pitfalls, and the benefits of investing in these types of relationships for ministry and mission. Register for Super Early Bird prices at www.newenglandschool.org!