First Words

Not that anyone reads this or uses it but I thought I would throw this out there.

A four part series on the first words of Jesus. Each week would focus on a different Gospel and the significance of what he said.

Matthew: "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness."
The context is his baptism. This would be the most difficult of the four to do but it could be something along the lines of Jesus full commitment to identify with us and get on our turf.

Mark: "The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news."

Duh.

Luke: "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my father's house?"
Jesus, even when he was young, was fully committed to the work of God. It was fundamental to his identity.

John: "What do you want? . . . Come and you will see." An invitation to come and be with Jesus and discover who he is.

Video Games

This idea comes after spending WAY too much time playing video games in the last two days. It was birthed in the real world during a conversation over Qdoba burritos with my housemate, Ross.

Vikki, if you read this, I remember a comment you made at winter conference a few years ago about trying to figure out the appeal of video games and how to get into spiritual conversations with people about them. Maybe this will help.

So Ross and I were briefly thinking about why we play so much video games. We thought about what exactly it is about them that makes us and a lot of other (mostly) guys play them so much. I think there is something about staring at a screen that messes with your brain and gets you addicted but that isn't going to preach very well now is it? But there must be something about the games themselves that makes us so into them.

I think that video games offer us compelling and exciting escapes from our normal, mundane, uninteresting lives. Video games have epic stories of which we are the center, interesting characters that share the story with us (this is multiplied when you factor in online gaming), clear objectives, an empowered existence, and finally, resurrection. I might turn this into a four part series. There are other things, but those are the first five that I thought of.

Oh, if I was going to preach this, I would probably do it for a men's retreat. I think I could adapt the material for a mixed audience and talk about movies in general.

Epic Stories

Halo is about saving earth from an evil race of aliens bent on destroying us. Assassin's Creed is about uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy surrounding the foundations of everything it means to be human. Call of Duty is about stopping the outbreak of World War 3. Shoot, Super Mario Brothers is about the rescue of a princess from an evil Dinosaur and restoring peace an prosperity to an entire Kingdom of strange toadstool people.

The things we do in video games are important. Our success means the human race survives. Or it means the toads get to live in peace. Either way, we are part of something big and significant. The world of video games is a world where things matter.

I wonder if we experience a lack of this in our own lives. Do we see ourselves caught up in an epic story where our actions contribute to the redemption and restoration of this world? Do our lives matter?

Scripture would tell us that yes, our lives matter. They matter immensely. And we ARE caught up in the greatest story the world has ever and will ever know. It is THE story upon which every other story is based. And we are living it.

It is the story of God creating the world. Of God and human beings working together to make something beautiful and good out of it.

It is the story of the rebellion. When humans chose to go their own way and not listen to the one who gave them life. And the consequences that followed.

It is the story of God's rescue plan. He called out a people all for himself who would begin to push back on the rebellion but who would ultimately become a part of it. His plan would not be thwarted. God himself came down as one of the humans. he showed us a better way to live. He started a revolution culminating with his death for the sins of the rebellious humans and his Resurrection. God had brought forth a new creation to push back against the rebellion and bring healing, restoration, renewal, and reconciliation.

It is the story of the people who chose to join the revolution. Those who let new creation transform them and the world around them. They keep pushing back against the rebellion in the hope that one day, Jesus will complete the healing work and make this world good again.

That is a compelling story. Living in that makes our lives matter. It makes our choices important. Everything matters now because we are bringing new creation into the world in the power of God.

That is the story he invites us into. The question is, do we want in?

I would go with a broad view in this one. Maybe I would use the True Story stuff for this. I would read from Genesis, a little something from the Gospels, and a bit from 2 Corinthians for the New Creation part.

Interesting Characters

There are a couple of places you could go with this one. You could talk about how the characters in video games are, well, interesting. They often have mysterious pasts. They do what needs to be done. They are not always nice and don't always have the best social skills. Master Chief is not known for his wit. He meets the Arbiter, an alien who is a traitor to his own people because he doesn't agree with them or their nefarious ambitions.

They live lives we wish we could have. The story they find themselves in calls them to live an extraordinary life. They accept the challenge.

Maybe when we are able to see ourselves as part of the story, we will see the ways God is calling us to live an extraordinary life. The story will require much of us and it will transform us. There are no boring people in the Kingdom of God. He will use and transform anyone who makes themselves available.

Another place you could go with this is the rise of multiplayer games. We want to be in the story with others. We want to share the quest with friends. Even if it is racing around rainbow road.

Community needs a purpose. And adventure was never meant to be done alone. In single player games, your character meets up with people who will help them along or reveal more information to them. In mulit-player games, there are actually other people there with us.

God is inviting us to do this adventure together and to deeply know the people who are with us. Who knows what the person sitting next to us might end up becoming? What might God do with them? When we all start letting God transform us, what might we be capable of?

Clear Objectives

I may not know exactly where the story in the game I am playing is going, but I know with certainty what my next objective is. I may not know HOW I am going to achieve it, but I know what the goal is. I have to beat that boss. I have to destroy the outpost. I have to slay the dragon. I have to kill everyone else on the other team. I have to rescue the princess.

There are always bad guys we know we can fight. There is rarely any ambiguity in a video game.

We know the objectives in video games. There is rarely any doubt about what we need to to. There is clarity of purpose.

Our lives are not always so simple. How many times have we wondered what our purpose was? How many times have we not known what we were supposed to do next? How many times have we not known what was harmful to us and what was good?

I think we react differently in these situations. Some people, the go-getters, try to make something happen. They try to create adventure and a compelling story. Sometimes they succeed. Other times, they end up causing a lot of trouble and pain for themselves.

Some people, when they don't know what to do, do nothing. This is me. Actually, when I don't know what to do, I often play video games. Why? Well, there I know what I am supposed to do. I have purpose.

What would it be like to trust God each step of the way? What would it look like to keep his objectives in mind and let those guide us. Love God and love people. Help people around me experience and enter into the new creation that God has brought forth into the world.

What would my days be like if I woke up every morning and reminded myself of God's objectives for myself and for others? What if we started doing that together? Oh man. That would be awesome. The rebellion would totally get PWNED!!!!

Empowered Existence.

Let's face it, in video games you get to do cool stuff. You can run faster, jump higher, and generally do things that no human being will ever be able to do. I just played this game called "prototype." I could shape-shift into any person I wanted to. I could turn my hands into giant claws. I could run up the side of skyscrapers. I could cover the entire length of Manhattan in minutes.



Who doesn't want super powers? When I play a video game, I get to vicariously experience a life where I can stretch beyond the limits of my frail humanity.

When we compare ourselves to Master Chief, Samus, or even Mario (the brother can become invincible, shoot fireballs, ride a dinosaur, FLY, and hold his breath indefinitely underwater!) our lives are quite boring. We can't do things that are on par with that stuff.

And that leaves us stuck doesn't it. If this whole epic story thing is true, what the heck can we do about it? I can't push back the rebellion.

Or can I?

God's rescue plan included Jesus. And Jesus empowered people to proclaim and bring the Kingdom. He gave them authority to do the things he did. He even said his followers would do greater things than he. When you stop and think about that, it is pretty rad. That guy did some cool stuff.

I may never walk on water, but I might be able to be a part of someone realizing the truth of the Gospel. I HAVE been a part of that. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I could get involved with the tangible changing of someone's life. I could become an advocate for people who have no voice.

And this is not to mention gifts the Holy Spirit gives us. I have heard from God in prayer and spoken very significant words to people. That seems pretty dang close to super powers to me. Take a look at 1 Corinthians 12-14. When we chose to let God help us build up and encourage others, anything is possible.

Jesus empowers us to be new creations and to bring new creation to the world.

And this brings us to the final point:

Resurrection

Remember when you could run out of lives in a video game and actually have to start over?

Game over has gone the way of the dodo. Now when your character dies, you start over at the last checkpoint. Can you imagine having to get though Halo without dying? That would be SO HAAAAAAARD!!!!

Anyway, video games are built on the idea of resurrection and second chances. Imagin a game where your character died and then you couldn't play the game anymore. That's it. You made a misstep or a mistake, you died, and now you cannot play anymore. You had your chance and you blew it.

That would suck.

Thankfully, that does not happen in video games. No one would play them if that was the case.

But here is the really beautiful part: The fact that you know you can come back means you can take risks. You can try things. You can attempt ridiculous moves in a game because you know that if you fail, you will come back and you can try again.

What if we lived our lives this way? If we were free to fail in the attempt to succeed because we knew we could come back more experienced and try again?

Isn't that what Jesus does? Doesn't he give us second chances? Why don't we risk more? If I was totally free of the fear of failure, I would try all kinds of stuff. And I would epic fail at a lot of it but I wouldn't care! I would know that Jesus was cheering me on and helping me get back up. That is beautiful.

And finally, video gamers know that death is not the end. They know that when their character bites the dust, he will come back. The bad guys in the games cannot EVER succeed because your character can beat death. I can try to complete a level 100 times or more. I will eventually get it. They can't stop me!

Resurrection is built into the fabric of video games and it should be built into the fabric of our faith and our lives. Jesus refuses the game over. It has no power over him. The Covenant and the Koopa Troopas cannot stop him. He came back from the dead and conquered them. He robbed death, our ultimate bad guy, of all its power.

That is the Gospel people!!!

God is inviting us to take part in his epic story together. He is redeeming, restoring, and renewing his creation. He has cut off the rebellion at its source and brought the revolution of new creation. He empowers us to live it out and bring it forth with him. He will be with us no matter what and stick with us to see it through.

The question remains: Do we want in?

I Am With You Always

I am not sure this is the best scripture to use for where I want to go with it, but it was the best I could come up with. I am completely open to suggestions. This idea was birthed by a conversation Dawn and I had a couple of days ago.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." -Matthew 28:19-20

I want to focus primarily on the last line of this. There could be something particularly significant about the fact that the very last thing Jesus says in Matthew is that he will be with the disciples as they go. Jesus' final promise, the one that will be left hanging in the air after you read the book, is that he will always be with them. That is something right?

"I am with you always."

Who exactly is he with? Who are the men standing there with him on the mountain? Who is he committing to never leave? Since we don't know a whole lot about the disciples, we might only want to mention a few.

Peter: The perpetually foot-in-mouthed racist who after nearly killing a man to protect Jesus, denies him three times on the night Jesus needs friends the most. Peter is the king of public mistakes and inconsistency.

James and John: Brothers who seem a bit too power-hungry to make me think they would be good fits for leading a church. They also feel fine going behind the backs of their friends to achieve what they want.

We don't know much about the other disciples, but we do know that collectively they bumbled around doubting Jesus, questioning his actions and his choice of company, completely missing the point of what he was doing for years, and they all ditched him on the night he was arrested.

This is the group that Jesus promises to always be with. He will never leave them. Jesus is fully committed and invested in these men and will see them through to the bitter end.


I find this to be simultaneously extremely comforting and troubling. Because when I look at my own life, I know that I am a lot like them and it is amazing to me that Jesus promises to stick with me through it all. He will be there when I get it right and he will be there when I fail in spectacular public ways. He will never stop reaching out his hand to heal and invite me into what he is doing.

It is troubling because I do not know how to do this for people. Might Jesus, when he calls the disciples to make more disciples, be inviting them into the same commitment he showed his own twelve? What would it look like for us to say to those we lead and those we know "I will never leave you?"

When they fail.
When they choose poorly.
When they make bad decisions.
When they make mistakes.
When they stop coming to Bible Study.
When they start sleeping around.
When they begin to doubt everything they believe.
When they reject Jesus.

Jesus promises to stick with us. And I wonder if he calls us to stick with others. Who have we left that we should return to? Who needs to know that we still care? Who out there expects us to leave?

What will that do to us? I don't know. We will probably make a lot of mistakes and get a lot of things wrong, but that doesn't make it not worth doing. It will be hard, but Jesus will be with us won't he?

"I am with you always."

Want to Help With a Miracle?

John 11:38-44

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 "Take away the stone," he said.
"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."

40 Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

The Lazarus passage is so amazing and so full of great moments, interactions, and significance. to preach it all in one sermon would be to do none of those parts justice. What I am thinking you would do for this one would be to focus on HOW the miracle happens. What are the steps. Here is what I see.

Step 1: Jesus tells the people who are there to remove the stone. This is significant. Jesus includes other people in what he is doing. They remove the thing that will stop Lazarus from hearing and responding to Jesus. What obstacles are in the way of people we know? How can we be people who remove obstacles that get in the way of people hearing and responding to Jesus?

Step 2: "Lazarus, Come OUT!" Jesus raises a dead man. You are never so far gone that Jesus cannot reach you and heal you. You are never so hopeless that Jesus cannot change you. This one is kind of a no brainer.

Step 3: Jesus tells people to remove the grave clothes. Lazarus is alive. Jesus has raised him. But he still looks like a dead man. He is still wearing clothes that are not fit for one who is alive. Lazarus needs help fully entering in to the new life Jesus has given him. He needs other people to come help him. What are the places we feel like we are still not healed? What are the things we have always struggled with? We need to let other people in and let them come help us live in the new life that Jesus has given us.

I would cut up strips of linen or fabric and make everyone tie them to their arm at the beginning and not say anything about it for a while. Then I would have everyone think of the place they are stuck in the old life. That is their fabric. They need to get someone else to help them take it off. They can share what that thing is.

Yes? Good Idea?