Sitting With Jesus - First Sunday in Lent

As we enter into the season of Lent, I want to put this prayer before each of us.  I hope that we will all take some time this week to sit with Jesus and ask him to humble us and show us what is in our hearts and help us trust him more throughout this season. 
 
I pray this will be a blessing to us all.

-Ford

“First Sunday in Lent
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan; Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”

— Book of Common Prayer

Running to Righteousness

As I sit to write this, my belly is like a lake after a week of rain.  I have had three cups of coffee, a giant bottle of water, and I am debating a glass of lemonade.  Last night I grazed on crackers and cheese before devouring a cheeseburger; and just 8 hours later, I am eating toast.  The truth is “hunger” and “thirst” are words that have little meaning to me.  In fact, if I were really honest, the things I actually hunger and thirst for have little to do with life and death sustenance and more to do with appearances and popularity. Embarrassing as it is, I am more “thirsty” for my children’s success than I am for water.  I crave pretty things as much as I do food.  And so when I read this verse that tells me happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, I know I must take time to go deep and think hard on what this means to a girl living in our swirling times of excess. 

On the hillside thousands of years ago when Jesus spoke this verse to His disciples, hunger and thirst were real.  Death by starvation was common, and people of that time had felt the deep and desperate pangs of hunger and thirst. So, when Jesus said happy are you when you need, crave, desire, when you depend on as if for life or death – righteousness, it got their attention.  If we want this blessing, we must give it our attention also.  But as a full-bellied American in 2015, it is hard to focus.  This is when my God/Guide/Scripture Teller grabs my hand and walks me smack dab into the story.  Side note:  I love it when He does this.

This is what I see when I walk onto the scene.  I see a Mom/wife /girly-girl who believes God is God and that Jesus is His son.  She desires to be a “good” Christian, so she goes to church and Bible Study as much as she can.  She wants to do and say the right things at the right times to the right people.  She craves success in her mothering, with specific longing for good reputations in school and sports.  She hungers for a skinny body (how ironic), and clothes that look magazine-worthy on said body.  She thirsts for a home that is lovely, a ministry that is ‘successful’, a marriage that is happy, friends who love her, family who praise her and colleagues who esteem her.  She has come away from her little world and sat down with Jesus on the hill and said, “Bless me.”

Jesus looks at this friend/girl/sister with eyes filled with love so great and understanding so deep that she almost wants to look away.  It is too personal, too total – both His seeing her and His loving her.  And He says, You are blessed, my daughter; but you will only receive this blessing to the extent that you desire me.  I see the hungers and the thirsts of your heart.  Those things will never fully satisfy.  I am the thing you crave, I am what your heart is thirsting for.  This woman/teacher/blogger stands before Jesus and it’s as if her hands are full of all the things she has been striving for, thirsting for, chasing after.  He stands in front of her with His hands extended reaching for her as if to hug her in an embrace that will fill all the holes and then to guide her through a life of purpose.  But in order for her to fall into the embrace, in order for her to take His hands in hers, she must lay down all the other desires, wants, cravings.  She is faced with a choice.  Who is she if she lays all that down?  But who will she become if she does not?

In this verse, the righteousness we are to hunger for like a person starving is Jesus Christ.  It is not a partial righteousness that can be found in showing up at church and doing good deeds.  And it is not a small craving like wanting something sweet after we have had our salty.  Ladies, this is talking about total desperate hunger for a total perfect Goodness. This is when we drop all the little accessories of life we cling to, that we think will make us who we are, and we RUN, EMPTY-FISTED, OPEN-HANDED into the arms and plans and love and perfect righteousness of Jesus.  And it is there we find that we are satisfied and that we are indeed blessed.

Sermon Audio - February 22, 2015 - Rev. Ford Jordan

Sitting With Jesus - Ash Wednesday Prayer

Friends –
 
The vision of Redeemer Anglican Church is that we would be a people who Participate with Christ in the Redemption of All Things.   That ‘all things’ includes ourselves…  In Hebrews 10:14, the writer states that God has perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified.  This means that though we have already been redeemed, we still await the fullness of our redemption – the completeness of Christ’s work in us.  And throughout the scriptures, we’re called to participate in that work by the way that we live.    
 
One of the ways we participate in the Lord’s redemptive work in our lives is by is by Sitting with Jesus in prayer.  So, each week, we are going to make an effort to help you – even for a moment – sit with Jesus and saturate yourself in prayer.  In the Book of Common Prayer there are prayers for each week of the liturgical year.  They are beautiful prayers handed down by the saints who have gone before us.  They are not always simple to read, but they are always rich in meaning.  And so, I want to encourage you to take a minute or two (or 10 or 20) to sit with this prayer each week.  Really think about what the prayer is saying about who God is and consider what is asking of the Lord. 
 
If we would each sit with Jesus this way each week I believe a couple of things would happen.  First, I believe these ancient prayers would become our prayers.  They will become more and more meaningful as we embrace them as our own.  Second, I believe that as we pray them ‘together’ our lives become more and more united in Christ and in one another.  Finally, I believe they will teach us about ourselves and about our Lord and that the Lord will use these prayers to shape our hearts and our affections and draw us in line with Him.  This is redemptive work for our souls.  Don’t rush through them; sit with them.  Let them soak into you and remain with you throughout your day and week.
 
I pray this will be a blessing to us all.  Below is the prayer for Ash Wednesday:
 

grace and peace,

-Ford 

“Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.”

— The Book of Common Prayer

The Bold and the Beautiful

From the grocery store checkout line, it looks like the “happy” people who are “inheriting the earth” have Golden Globes and Grammys, and they fly through the air during Super Bowl halftime.  They have fame like Beyonce and hair like Jennifer Anniston.  These people don’t look meek to me, they look sexy and invincible.  Meek, by comparison, seems dull. But we are reading words from the supreme Artist who I believe is the Painter of the pinkest sunsets, the Sculptor of the greatest mountains, and the Inventor of the smell of newborn babies. From what I can see, He doesn’t do dull.  Plus, those magazine covers will change before my milk runs out, and we are after stuff that lasts forever.  So I must rethink “meek”. Before I can look at “blessed are the meek” on its own, I have to look at what landed me here.   First, we have to understand that blessing comes to the poor in spirit, that our lives are ultimately empty without Jesus.  Then, we see the blessing that comes when we grieve the sin-distance from Him, seeing all the things we have put between God and ourselves; and we turn back to Him in wonderment that He wants us so much.  And now we stand before God totally naked and utterly exposed.  We have shed all the layers we put on to make a good show to the world, and we have come to the cross in humility seeing how quickly we are to worship everything around us besides Him.  We are bare, real, raw, spirit-crushed, and weary from mourning.  And, at this place, He looks at us and says, “Stay just like that.  I have a plan for you, and it is beautiful.”

So, take a minute and think about all the things you are hiding right this very minute.  There are physical things like your panty line because you don’t want anyone to know you are wearing granny panties with your skinny jeans.  There’s that dreadful muffin top escaping out of said jeans, that pimple, the dark eye circles, and your natural hair color (wink!).  But there are more painful insecurities.  Maybe it’s your bank account, your lack of education, your disappointment that your son is not a superstar, that your daughter is overweight, the fact that your marriage is empty, that you are petrified to be alone; or maybe it’s the deep heart truth that you really just want more stuff, not more God.  Shame, guilt, hiding.  Whatever it is, we all do it.  Layers upon layers in defense of ME.  It’s our human nature to preserve our self, and we have spent a lifetime becoming experts at it.

In this one tiny verse, Jesus is telling us to take off all the layers of pomp and self-importance, and life in defense of ME.  He is asking us to live surrendered to Him, and, in doing so, He Himself will defend you.  Not only will He defend you, He will decorate you, He will cherish you, He will deliver you, He will never leave you; and, ultimately, He will exalt you.  He will write your life story in such a way that you will look back and wonder what in the world you were ever trying to defend in the first place.

John McAurthur said meekness is saying, “I will never defend myself, but I will use all my power to defend God [in me].”  William Barclay says meekness is “the characteristic that makes a man bow low before God in order that he may stand tall before other men.”  I say meekness is when we go to Jesus stripped down naked to the most honest version of ourselves and we say to Him, “You dress me. You write my story.  When I get up from this naked place, I want to stand with You.”

Girls, hear me clearly, meekness is not weakness, and it is not dowdy or dull.  Meekness is bold and courageous and beautiful.  When you are meek, you are no longer hiding your flaws, because you have surrendered them; and you are now touting the perfect splendor and strength of Jesus Christ.  Why are the meek blessed?  The meek are blessed because they know their lives are being handled by, decorated by, written by, sustained by, and empowered by God, Himself.

Your Great Love Story

There are three ways this verse can be taken, and they are all true. This verse can be taken literally.  It speaks to those who have endured the bitterest sorrow that life can bring.  Such suffering and loss can lead us to the comfort that only a perfect God can offer in circumstances that hurt too deeply to even be explained.  Those who mourn in this way will be comforted.  God is close to the brokenhearted. The verse also speaks to those who deeply grieve the social injustices and evils of the world.  There is much scripture about fighting for justice and extending mercy.  James Boice challenges believers, “[Christianity] should produce a sound social conscience.  In fact, if it does not, we have some reason to doubt our Christianity.” This beatitude is a cry to live our faith like we mean it - with hands and feet and words … and even tears.  Jesus is with you in this grief, and you will be comforted by His presence.

But the essence of this verse requires an honest look at the state of our hearts.  This is where we must stop, focus, listen.  Jesus is telling you and me, blessed are you when you mourn  - as if life’s biggest loss had befallen you – over your sin.  When I realized this truth, my heart and mind froze.  It is far easier ONE DAY (long ago at camp, maybe) to admit that you are a sinner in theory, ask God to live in your heart, and then get up and go on your merry way.  It seems a paradox to think of being happy by seeing, admitting and actually grieving your sin all the time.

I can’t say that I have my head around this fully, but this is what I my heart is whispering:  this is your love story.  God sees you exactly as you are, and He adores you.   You are His princess for all time.  He desires you to know Him, so that you can understand how much you are fully and truly loved.  This requires closeness, a relationship.  But there is a problem, you see.  We don’t believe His love is enough.  And so, in a desperate attempt to feel loved and accepted, we fill our lives with all sorts of striving and doing – getting prettier, richer, more accomplished, making life look all shiny and together.  Or, conversely, we don’t see how our little life even matters, so we coast along detached.  In either case, the result is distance from God.  God hates this distance from us.

This brings us to the sin part.  Sin, simply put, is anything that separates us from God.  I love that the first sin was eating fruit, not committing murder.  It boiled down to Eve listening to the voice of the glamorous, skinny, decorated serpent instead of the voice of God.  I wonder what would have happened if Eve had said, Hold on, Sexy Serpent Creature, this sounds awesome and it is so pretty, but I just want to check in with God about this.  He was there in Eden.  It wasn’t like He had slipped away on vacation.  He was within reach, but Eve looked elsewhere and she separated herself from God.  She went for what was pretty and polished and promised to make her savvy in the ways of the world.  Don’t we do that all the time?  With God just a word away, we look elsewhere, create the distance, forget how much we are loved.  Sin is murder and stealing, yes.  But it is far more pervasive than that.  Sin is when we cut God out of the very picture He made – your life, my life.

In this love story, now enters our Savior King.  Before we even realized the distance, before we even wanted to talk to Jesus, He made a way for you and me to be near Him always.  This Lover of our souls said, ‘Yes, that one with the Instagram addiction, who screams at her kids while she covets her neighbor’s life, who gossips about her in-laws, who worries about how her outfit makes her bottom look while standing in the communion line at church.  Yes, that one.  I love her.  I will die for that one.’  While we were still ignoring Him, putting everything else as more important than Him, He was willingly mocked, whipped, flogged, spat upon, nailed to a cross, and, then, He died for us.

Anything you have ever done or ever will do that could separate you from this King who sees you fully and loves you completely, He conquered on that day.   Three days later, Jesus returned to us alive, eradicating that separation for all time. That cross is now your bridge to Jesus.  It is how you go from being lost to being found, from wandering around without purpose or identity to living loved, living seen and living up close and in a personal relationship with the Lover of your soul.

The paradox is now clearer.  We are blessed when we mourn, because if we are truly grieving His absence, then we are seeing Jesus as the only One who can make us whole.  And when we truly see Jesus, we have come to the cross.  It is there at that Holy bridge that we are comforted because the distance is gone and we are with our King.  We are blessed because it is here we see “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   Romans 8:38-39

The Cork - Matthew 5:3

I got my coffee all doctored so it tasted like a dessert.  I sat down with my Bible, my journal and my colored pencils ready for lots of juicy notes.  I was puffed up with the excitement of how I was going to ROCK the Beatitudes like nobody’s business.  Right, so let’s see...  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”  Inner monologue:  Hmmm… nothing coming to me.  Poor?  Poor in spirit?  I thought these were all about squeezing the fullness out of life?  Well, maybe this one needs to go with the next one to make sense.  “Blessed are those who mourn...”  Mourning.  Grieving.  Ooookay.  Hmmm…  The truth of it is, I had no idea. I always thought of the Beatitudes (and really the whole ‘faith thing’) as a list of things TO DO/TO BE that would make me ‘good’ and my life ‘blessed’.  Me, Myself and I – oh yes, we can kick booty on some to-do’s.  So, as I sat there all Suzy-Spiritual and ready to get my Christian on, you can imagine the jolt that came when I realized that there is actually nothing I can do.  The Message interprets this verse “Blessed are you when you are at the end of your rope.  When there is less of you, there is more of God.”  William Barclay paraphrases, “Blessed is the man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole trust in God.”  It turns out that the beatitudes are less about adding to the list of MY accomplishments and more about letting go.

This is where it’s so easy to say, ‘I just don’t get it’ and move on.  But remember when and how these words were whispered… on a hillside, friend to friend, in the midst of a culture clamoring for freedom and happiness, a culture much like our own.  In the story, the Disciples followed a ‘trending’ Jesus off the big stage of familiarity and into intimacy.  To ‘get this’, we must do the same.  We have to shut out the noises of our busy world and take a silent minute to consider this question: if God made me, maybe He knows exactly what I need, when I will need it, and how I can get it.  And if so, consider His words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

Picture yourself as an empty wine bottle.  Inside you have come up with the perfect plan for what is going to give you happiness.  You create a diet/exercise routine, you immerse yourself in all sorts of do-good/feel-good activities, you read self-help books...  You figure it all out, and then you put a cork in the top so that you don’t lose control of your plan.  And then you float around in your little life.  You read about how you are supposed to feel this soul-deep happiness; but even though you are doing all the right things, you still feel empty.

This verse is asking each of us to let go of all our plans, our prejudices, our I-can-do-this-my-way’s.  It’s asking us to sit down with Jesus and say, “Will You do this for me?”  This verse says, take out the cork.  And as you do, the blessing-water, the Heaven-kingdom-goodness-that-really-satisfies fills that bottle, bit by bit.  You don’t even know what or where it is coming from, but as you let go, Jesus flows in and you sink into soul-deep meanings, and you find that you are truly blessed.

Soul-Deep Happiness for the Swirling Girls of the New Year

It is January. A new year.  Days of new beginnings and fresh starts. These are here-we-go kind of days.  And revving the engine of the New Year are all our hopes and dreams for what the next 12 months may hold -- a healthier body, a new accomplishment, a desire to live life fully.  Without knowing every person’s resolutions, it is safe to say that they all revolve around this idea of betterment.  We resolve to do things that we believe will make us happier on the inside and out.  No matter who we are.

This universal New Year perspective is dear to me.  So precious that no matter where we are, who we know, what our circumstances, our desires all come back to this basic craving for soul-deep happiness.  And how utterly amazing that there is a God that knows this about all of humanity, and even more so, that He gave us a Book that would guide us to the answers every heart yearns to know.

In Matthew 5:3-10, it’s as if Jesus sits down with His peeps and whispers, do you want to know the key a blessed life, a soul-deep happy life?  I will tell you…

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Boom.  There it is.  That’s the secret.  It’s just that it doesn’t look like what I thought it would.  In fact, I sort of want to disagree and plead the whole He-can’t-mean-this-literally thing.  That was clearly a different culture, right?  But when I look at what was going on, I think He means every word precisely.  When Jesus spoke these words to His disciples, it was at the beginning of His ministry.  He was starting to gather huge crowds, and His ministry was all the buzz.  (Let’s just say Jesus was trending.)  The crowds wanted healing (better bodies); they wanted freedom (financial, spiritual and political); they wanted to live happy, full lives in the midst of hard circumstances.   Hmmm… That sounds rather familiar.  Don’t we all ponder what it is that will make us feel complete, make us happy? What will most bless our kids, our bodies?  What will heal our relationships?

The buzz then was that this Jesus just might be able to deliver.  And from the midst of a swirling culture where everyone was chattering about what or whom was going to save them from their own little (or big) messes, Jesus pulled aside to a quiet hillside and offered the key to a blessed life.   And as easy as it would be for me to dismiss these verses as irrelevant, I must at least entertain the possibility that the words whispered on that hillside may in fact be very relevant indeed to a girl also wind-blown by the swirling culture all around her.  Could it be that these words offer soul-deep happiness to this Pinterest-perusing, Facebook-stalking, all-the-time-texting, desperate-to-look-just-right, determined-to-get-it-together woman in 2015?

Well, there’s one way to find out.  Will you join us every other Monday as we dig into these 8 verses?   Let’s see if words spoken over 2000 years ago could ring true in this New Year.  Everyone is welcome.  Come as you are.

Her Secret - Proverbs 31:10-31

Even with the gap of several thousand years between when Proverbs was written and today, one thing is abundantly clear.  Women have always been busy multi-taskers whose work is never done.  If ever we thought that Jesus did not understand the workload of a woman, we now know that is not true.   These words are manna to frazzled women everywhere saying, “I understand, I see.” That said, the Proverbial wife is a Rock Star.  In reading these verses, we see a woman whose husband trusts her, who is a hard worker, and who brings in food from far away lands (probably organic).  She is an entrepreneur who turns a profit.  She gets up early, and she stays up late.  Her kids are prepared for bad weather, because she has organized the glove and hand-me-down closet.  She is kind to the needy, and she is dressed in beautiful clothes.  She sounds perfect, so it is very easy to set her aside as made-up, unattainable and, therefore, irrelevant; but then we would miss our manna.  I think she is offering us her secret.

There is a depth to her that goes beyond the things she does.  Indeed, more than what she does is the spirit of how she does it. Verse 25 says, “Strength and dignity are her clothing, she smiles at the future.”  It is this verse that makes me stop and read it all again imagining her laughing as she goes, and yet doing everything with great strength and dignity.  By smiling at the future, we know this woman is doing laundry, dishes, housework, and community service with a lightness of knowing that such work is simply part of something all together bigger and more lasting.  And with strength and dignity as her clothing, we see a woman assured of a worth far beyond stocked cupboards and swept floors.

If we were to list the things we do in the course of our days, we could be labeled:

cook chauffeur tutor coach psychologist closet organizer housekeeper personal shopper banker decorator nurse...

We do a bit of all these things, but we cannot do everything to mastery every day. As such, in our exhaustion, we can easily begin to limp through our days feeling only the drudgery - no dignity, no smiling. So, how does this Proverbial wife do this with a head held so high?

One of the hardest questions for me to answer is: what do you do?  I look at the floor and mumble something about being a mom and a wife.  My mind swims with both the magnitude of my chores and the ambiguity of my ‘label’.  I am answerless.  And I think this is the difference between me and this Rock Star Wife .  In her heart and mind, she is quite sure of who she is.  While she does in fact perform all these mundane tasks, these do not define her.  Instead, I think she has written God’s word on the tablet of her heart, and she claims boldly in the depth of who she is the labels that God Himself has given her.

They are labels like this:

Bride of Christ Daughter to the King Daughter-in-law to the King Beloved Aroma of Christ Ambassador of Heaven City on a Hill Light of the world Dwelling of the Holy Spirit Hands and Feet of Jesus Disciple of Christ Headed for heaven with a room being prepared Prized and adored by the King of Kings Worth fighting for, worth dying for

These are the labels she wakes up clinging to.  It is with these labels that she brings great dignity and lightness to her work.  Yes, indeed, for these current days she may serve as a midnight baby nurse and a housekeeper, but she is doing so as the Daughter to the King.  To be sure, she will spend time in the classroom tomorrow, but she is doing so as an Ambassador from Heaven.  She knows that the first list of labels lasts only for a blink, but the second list lasts for all of eternity.   And so she is clothed in dignity, and, yes, indeed, she smiles at the future. And here is our manna:  these are our labels too.

The Field of Faith - Proverbs 17

Sometimes studying scripture can feel prickly. In studying Proverbs I have felt like a football player in the game of life who keeps getting penalties called on her thoughts, words and actions. Bright yellow flags are flung in the rooms of my heart and mind. There is a contentious referee broadcasting my mistakes with demonstrative arm movements, “Penalty on Katie Koon. Destructive use of her tongue, hostile reaction in anger, and ridiculous amount of time fearing what her friends think.” I read the words of instruction. I see how I don’t live like these words. I pray that I would do the words next time. Then, I get up to start a new day, and in the prophetic words of Britney Spears, “oops I did it again.” Bright…. yellow… flags…everywhere. Here’s the truth about yellow flags. I learned it from my sons who are playing football through a simple city league. Yellow flags show that you are in the game. My boys get flags called on them when they are on the field -- under the eye of the ref, trying to obey the coach, working towards the goal of doing their very best in the game of football. They are 9 and 10 years old. They don’t even know all the rules of the game; and they are certainly not superstars; but they are on that field. If they were not in the game, there would be no flags.

Proverbs 17:3 “the refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests hearts.”

Ladies, these Proverbs prickle because we are on the field of faith, and that is a wonderful, beautiful, everlasting thing! We have signed up to give this game a try. We are reading the Playbook, we are listening to the Coach, we are showing up for practice, and we are choosing to live life on His field according to His Words. The fact that we feel the pinch of the flag shows that He is teaching us, and shows that our hearts are hearing. Better than silver, more valuable than gold, that our hearts are committed to living on His field makes them worth strengthening, worth testing, worth cleansing. “The Lord disciplines those He loves.”

Here’s a second truth about flags. In one week, I watched the same penalties called on my boys get called on middle school boys 5 years older, on college boys 10 years older who were seasoned enough be playing on national TV, and on professional men 20 years older who get paid millions of dollars to play the same game. At every level, the penalties were all the same. The NFL hero gets called “off sides” just as my son does. God gave me a great wink in this. The point is not about perfection, for that will only be reached on the far side of the clouds; the point is to stay in the game. Play by His rules. Live out His words. Choose His field.

Jennifer Steele shared her most frequent prayer these days as a mother in the trenches, “help me, help me, help me.” What a wonderful prayer for every woman on the field of faith. In the game, eyes toward the Coach, seeing the yellow flags, wanting to obey, oh-so-aware of how quickly we stumble, but always believing that there is help within reach. Jesus knew there would be flags as we lived this life on His field. When we see the flag/feel the prick and turn to Him for forgiveness and help, He picks up the flag and offers a clean field once again. Like a mama on the sidelines watching her little boy on the field, He is watching us and with everything He has He is whispering, “I am for you! Keep at it. Stay with me. Oh how I love you!”