Cruciform Listening

A couple of worthwhile thoughts about loving others by listening to them:

To Be Heard and On Being a Hearer

My summary: Cruciform Listening = Loving God and others by listening to God and others


[HT: Altogether Too Much Privacy]

Moving Is - - - -

We're in the midst of moving. You know the routine: pack and pack and pack...slap yourself for having so much junk in, under, and around your house...pack some more...go to yet another liquor store (for empty boxes, that is)...pack even more stuff...ask the wife and kids to forgive you for your crabby attitude (again)...pack more boxes only with less concern for making sure that similar items go in the same box...

I've moved enough times to verify something I learned in Hebrew class years ago. The Hebrew word for "tent" is pronounced "OH-hell"...that's right, the accented syllable is "OH," the other one sounds like "hell." Go ahead, ask your neighborhood Hebrew scholar or rabbi. I ain't jokin'.

I have a theory about how the word for tent came to be pronounced "OH-hell." If you've ever read the account of the Hebrews' wilderness wanderings, you'll know that God instructed His people to keep an eye on the cloud of glory that rested on the tabernacle in the middle of their encampment. Whenever the cloud lifted and moved, the people would have to pack up and follow. Read about it in Numbers 9:15-23.

Remember, these folks lived an "in tents" life. (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.) Their ancient eastern mobile homes had to be broken down, packed on to some poor beast of burden, moved to a new location, and set up all over again...and again...and again...you get the picture.

So, why should we be surprised that the Hebrew word for tent is pronounced "OH-hell"? Can't you hear the conversation now:

Moses: "Um...honey. The cloud has moved again. Better start packing the tent."

Mrs. Moses: "OH-hell."

Moses: "That's what I said: the tent."

What would you say if you were constantly packing up and moving on a moment's notice?

[If you want to hear it for yourself, click here, then click on the "speaker" symbol under "Phonetic spelling" to hear the pronunciation.]

I Was A Teenage Elvis Impersonator

I have a confession to make. Don’t spread this around, but…I was a teenage Elvis impersonator.

It all started in fourth grade. My buddy, Tommy, and I decided to enter the fourth grade talent show. It was 1977, the year that Elvis (allegedly) died, so we wanted to pay him tribute. I sang “Hound Dog” while he ran around me on all fours barking like a dog! Now, that’s talent!

In fifth grade I moved to a new school and decided to enter the all-school talent show. This time it was serious. My mom slaved for hours over a sewing machine to tailor a white jumpsuit complete with rhinestones, high collar, and giant belt buckle. My dad squeezed half a tube of Brylcreem in my hair and combed it Elvis-style, ducktail and all. I took the stage and stole the hearts of fifth grade girls and their moms as I tossed them sweat-stained scarves from around my neck.

Seventh grade came along and I went to yet another new school. My older brother, Jeff, was already established in the small Christian school, so I became known as “Jeff’s little brother.” That wouldn’t do. Soon I made my Elvis debut at a Homecoming Banquet and basked in the applause as the homecoming queen planted a kiss on my cheek! I had made it! From then on I was known as “Little Elvis.”

I thought I had satisfied the two thirsts that every one of us has…the thirst to be someone special and to do something special. All of us were made with empty hearts that long to be loved (to be someone special to another person or people) and to make an impact on our world (to do something special that makes a difference). God gave Adam and Eve these thirsts, too, so that they would come to Him to satisfy their souls (see Genesis 1:27-28). But they satisfied themselves elsewhere…remember the tree? Since then, we too have forsaken the only Source of Satisfaction in order to dig our own broken cisterns (Jeremiah 2:13).

Jesus came and offered us complete satisfaction in His Spirit. “'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit...” (John 7:38-39a). It is the Spirit of adoption who whispers deep into my heart that I am someone special to my Father (Romans 8:16), and that I am part of a family of thirsty people (1 Corinthians 12:13). It is the Spirit who gives me the power and the courage to do something special with the gifts He’s given me (1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 2 Timothy 1:7), and to use those gifts to make an impact in my world by giving others a taste of His love (Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22).

I’m still tempted to dig broken cisterns today. Elvis doesn’t work for me anymore. These days I’m tempted to drink from my reputation as a pastor, my performance as a father, my own quest for comfort and pleasure, and other leaky places. Have you been dipping your heart in the wrong wells lately? Run back to the Spring of Living Waters! “Taste and see that the Lord is good…” (Psalm 34:8a).

“Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart.” (Abba Poeman)

As A Puppy Watches His Master's Hand

To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.

Psalm 123 (ESV)

Whenever I read Psalm 123 I can’t help but think of our miniature dachshund, Luther. Two things will cause Luther to fix his eyes on my hands with laser beam focus: a toy to fetch and a treat to eat. When we play fetch, Luther never takes his eyes off of my hands until they launch the rope or ball. Then he runs full speed in the direction my hand moves to toss the toy. When Luther knows that I have a treat, he locks my hand in his sights, waiting for the good stuff to be delivered. As a puppy’s eyes are fixed on his master’s hand, anticipating a command or even a cookie, so I long to look to the hand of my Master, to receive His bidding as well as His blessing.

Like Luther, I want my eyes riveted on my Master’s hands, waiting to move in the direction He gestures, waiting for morsels of mercy to fall. I want to be a servant who watches and waits for his Master’s every move and mercy. I want to be ready to serve Him, accomplishing whatever He wills for me to do. But I also stand ready to receive mercy from His hand whenever He is pleased to give it. I must watch and wait for His hand to point me toward His will, to send me out to accomplish some task or pursue some relationship that will further the advancement of His Kingdom. But I desperately need His mercy in order to move.

I must anxiously look to Jesus’ nail-pierced hands for the undeserved kindness that provides the resources, both spiritual and physical, that I will need to accomplish His mission. I need to look to Jesus, who has lived and died in my place, has been raised to new life, and is now seated next to His Father “enthroned in the heavens.” From there He is subduing enemies who scorned Him with arrogant contempt and even now are harassing me. United with Christ by faith, I am seated with Him there in the heavenlies. Thanks be to God! Holy Spirit, fasten my eyes on Christ, on His nail-pierced hands, that I might run at His command and receive mercy for the mission.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Have mercy upon us!

One Another-ing

Over on the Riverside website I've begun a series of articles examining the "one another" passages of the New Testament. The series is intended to explore what it means for the church to practice biblical community by devoting itself to "the fellowship" (Acts 2:42).

Here are the first two installments:

Part One: Love One Another: John 13:34-35

Part Two: Consider One Another: Hebrews 10:24

What We Want for Our Teenagers

Abraham Piper sums up our culture's low expectations for adolescents in 22 words:

Understanding teenage rebellion only as sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll implies that the goal is celibacy, sobriety, and employment. It’s not.

It’s Jesus.

I was just talking with some dads of teenagers about this at breakfast this morning. Our culture does have “low expectations” for teenagers, but then so do our churches. Too often the highest aim of our churches is “getting kids involved in church and/or service activities” and “getting them saved” rather than showing them what it means to treasure Jesus more than doing good things and going to heaven.

[HT: 22 Words Blog]

Book Review: The Jesus Way

The Jesus Way: A Conversation On The Ways That Jesus Is The Way
By Eugene H. Peterson (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2007)

In his introduction to The Jesus Way (which in my estimation is worth the price of the book) Eugene Peterson contrasts what he calls the “way of Jesus” with the way of American culture and the way of the American church:

The ways Jesus goes about loving and saving the world are personal: nothing disembodied, nothing abstract, nothing impersonal. Incarnate, flesh and blood, relational, particular, local.

The ways employed in our North American culture are conspicuously impersonal: programs, organizations, techniques, general guidelines, information detached from place…We cannot use impersonal means to do or say a personal thing—and the gospel is personal or it is nothing…

When it comes to persons, these ways of the world are terribly destructive. They are highly effective in getting ahead in a God-indifferent world, but not in the community of Jesus, not in the kingdom of God…the North American church at present is conspicuous for replacing the Jesus way with the American way (pp. 1-5).

Peterson argues that the American church is enamored with the truth of Jesus but ignores the method by which Jesus embodied that truth. But relational, word-made-flesh, life-on-life discipleship does not sell well in a culture that is steeped in mass production. We have found ways to efficiently mass produce almost everything, why not mass produce disciples? Peterson argues that we have come to exchange the way of Jesus for the way of industry:

If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our congregations is to identify what they want and offer it to them, satisfy their fantasies, promise them the moon, recast the gospel in consumer terms: entertainment, satisfaction, excitement, adventure, problem-solving, whatever. We are the world’s champion consumers, so why shouldn’t we have state-of-the-art consumer churches?...There is only one thing wrong: this is not the way in which God brings us into conformity with the life of Jesus…this is not the way in which we become less and Jesus becomes more…the cultivation of consumer spirituality is the antithesis of a sacrificial, ‘deny yourself’ congregation. A consumer church is an antichrist church (page 6).

The Jesus Way is the third in a series of Peterson’s “conversation” books published by Eerdmans and starts off stomping some of our ecclesiastical toes in the introduction and first chapter before settling into six chapters of what amounts to an Old Testament Bible study. These chapters are rich, albeit long, and are meant to show us that the way of Jesus falls in line with and further illumines the way that God has expected His people to walk throughout history. The final three chapters of the book contrast the way of Jesus with the ways and means of some of His contemporaries. Peterson insightfully explores the answers to three questions:

• Why didn’t Jesus adopt the Donald-Trump-like, bigger-is-better way of Herod or the intense, moral-purist, preserve-God’s-tradition way of the Pharisees?
• Why didn’t Jesus follow the affluent-religious-professional way of Caiaphas or the radical, anti-corrupt-religion ways of the Essenes?
• Why didn’t Jesus buy into the charismatic-celebrity, play-both-sides way of Josephus or the might-makes-right way of the Zealots?

Jesus rejected or just plain ignored all of the popular leadership styles of His day and walked a different path, a path of suffering submission to God that only finds its way in us through the life and language of prayer.

A couple of other thoughts that struck me as I read The Jesus Way:

• I love the rich, colorful way that Peterson writes, but sometimes I think he could be more efficient with his words. Sometimes the middle and latter chapters seemed to drag on. (See, I’m a product of my culture, aren’t I?) In all those words, though, were many nuggets of pure gold wisdom.
• Speaking of nuggets, some of the best thoughts about prayer I’ve read as of late are in the last three chapters of this book.
• This is a nit-picky point, but it caught my attention. After a rather long, but interesting discussion contrasting the non-violent way of Jesus to the violent ways of the Zealots, I was surprised that Peterson never addressed passages like Matthew 11:12 where Jesus said that “the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force.”
• After beginning with a rant against the programmatic and impersonal American church, the book surprised me with an interesting thought toward the end. Peterson, who sometimes sounds overly sympathetic to those who want to throw off the ritual and regulation of church, said that “without the protection of ritual and doctrine and authority, Christian spirituality is vulnerable to reduction and desecration.” Comparing the organization of the church to the dead bark of a tree and the organism (people and life) of the church to the tree’s inner life, Peterson wisely points out that “while the bark both hides and protects the cambium, it does not create it. The bark is dead. And neither do religious institutions create life….” (page 232).

All in all I commend Peterson’s latest “conversation” to you. Again, if you get the book for no other reason but to read the introduction (and I would add the first chapter), then picking up a copy of The Jesus Way is the way to go.