Fire Insurance

Fire Insurance. It's a phrase we use when people lean on fear or pending doom as a motivator for action. In Christianity, it's a common occurrence - if you don't say Yes to Jesus you're going to burn for eternity (there's numerous and plenty of descriptors of what 'hell' is going to be like - none of them are appealing, and the 'burn' is a common occurrence throughout the depictions). 

Also just learned I do not know how to spell occurrence. Thankfully there's spellcheck. I misspelled it twice, hah.

Jesus gives a really vivid picture of a door being closed and the people shut out knowing very clearly that they want to be in... should be in? could have been in? 

His words are striking in Luke 13v24 "Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, 'Lord, open up to us!' then He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know where you are from.' 

There's clearly a lot going on here, but a significant word is 'strive' (in the LSB). The NIV says "make every effort". The greek word is a fun one - agonizesthe ἀγωνίζεσθε. It's where we get the word 'agonize' from - it can mean to strive, to exert effort, or to fight. 

Jesus is telling people to fight to enter in the narrow door. If I can be honest, when I look at my own life, or even those of other Christians in my circles, the first word that comes to mind about how we're living isn't 'fight'. It's usually softer, with some steadfastness, or perseverance, or maybe faithfulness. 

But Jesus says agonizesthe - fight - make every effort. And while He is 'selling fire insurance' so to speak, He also is telling us the truth, and that truth made very plain. 

There is going to be an end to the grace and mercy we've experienced as humanity. God will return and will at that point begin judging righteously. There will be no more 'second chances' after this return. 

And the image Jesus masterfully paints here is a person on the outside, looking in, begging to get in, but unable to. The reply from the master of the house is quite horrifying "I don't know you. Depart. Worker of iniquity." ((deep sigh)) 

As I was re-reading the passage again, I was stunned at his passion for the city of Jerusalem. After this clear warning - "FIGHT TO ENTER! THE DOOR IS GOING TO CLOSE!" His words expose a heart that is broken for a sinful and confused, rebellious and fighting-the-wrong-person humanity. But there must be a limit. Words can't fully express emotions though, can they. Even attempting to write it out - I don't know where to begin, what words to employ, or even how many. In this case (and in all) Jesus's words must be enough: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you did not want it."

We'd all love a god who extends mercy and grace and 'second chances' ad nauseum. We'd appreciate the loan on our lives, the extension of forgiveness, and likely wrap it all up with promises of improvement, repentance and thankfulness. The sobering reality is that the eternal, perfect, infinite, holy God extended grace and mercy at all to humanity. And while we don't know when the door will be shut for good, nor do any of us truly know the hour our lives here will end - we do know we have today. That we are in the time of God's favor now. Today can be the day of salvation. 

What is the Kingdom of God like?

I've been a Christian for as long as I can remember. I was 'saved' at around eight years old. Always reminds me of that Stephen Curtis Chapman song "No Better Place - watch that for a throwback!" For the past five years, I've been able to read through the Bible in its entirety six times! Once I did it in sixty days - mainly listened to it! :) One thing I've heard, and have experienced, is that while you can read the Bible cover-to-cover in a year (or sixty days!), you won't get to the bottom of it in your entire life. The sermon I delivered on Luke 13v18-21 is a great example of that. Two relatively simple pictures that have incredibly deep meaning. A mustard seed growing into a large tree, and yeast that is mixed into sixty pounds of flour. 

Jesus is showing us what the Kingdom of God is like. 

Is it a set of new ideals? Is it about being forgiven? Yes and yes. But more. 

Through lots of commentaries and a couple of sermons from far wiser and more experienced pastors, I arrived at four pretty cool points that these two parables make. 

The Kingdom of God begins small. Humble beginnings. A mustard seed is tiny. The ratio of yeast to flour is 1.5 to 100. Are you able to pinpoint the first moment the Kingdom of God showed up in your life? The first seed planted? Have you considered the humble beginnings of the church? Take Jesus, born poor, into a family from a low social caste, from a small town. And then His first disciples - twelve guys that weren't chosen for their amazing pedigrees but in spite of them. 

But the Kingdom of God, while starting small, brings growth! The seed becomes a ten-foot-tall tree. The handful of yeast works its way through the all the flour, literally causing it to rise when baked. The first thirteen men (Jesus included), grew to just under 100 after sending out the seventy-two. Then a few thousand at Pentecost. But by 300 AD, in a Roman Empire of around 60+ million, Christians comprised 10% of the population. That's thirteen men to over 6,000,000 Christians. By 350 AD, the Roman Empire was 56% Christian (article, and this follow-up by pbs.org)! But sixty pounds of flour isn't just for the person baking it - no one can eat 60 loaves of bread - at least no average person! This amount of bread would feed a small neighborhood! And the mustard tree line mentions 'the birds perched in it' (referencing Ezekiel 17:23, 31:6 and Daniel 4:12, 21). 'The birds' symbolize the nations. God's original call to Abraham is found in Genesis 12... 

2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 

The Kingdom of God begins small, like a seed, but grows large and blesses those around you! Feeds others. They nest in it. (watch this version of "Bless Me" recorded in Everglades Correctional Institution! There's something deeply moving watching inmates sing "Bless me so that everyone around me can everything they need." I just watched it again - so good!)

The Kingdom of God also births new life. The seed turns into a tree; the yeast leavens the whole batch, changing the chemical composition of the existing flour (pretty interesting google rabbit hole if you're interested). The Bible, over and over again, says that when we are in Christ, we are a new creation, given a new birth, not merely humans any longer. Just like a plant becoming an animal experiences a new level of life, or an animal becoming a human would... humans who are in Christ, who are experiencing the Kingdom of God are no longer merely human, but are on a higher level of existence, a new life! 

The last thing is that it brings internal change. The seed, alive with life, mixed into soil, teeming with organic matter, changes. The yeast, mixed into the flour, changes everything. The result of the Kingdom of God in your life brings change! It's likely hidden, or invisible to those around you... at least at first. Just like a mustard seed in the soil is literally hidden; or yeast mixed into flour can't really be 'seen' - but it brings about change. If you're walking with Christ, a citizen of the Kingdom of God, while you might not be able to pinpoint the first seed of the gospel in your life, you can likely point to the change that's taken place in you! 

Four Letter Words

Lent. While it may be a new idea to you, it's an old idea to the Church. Around 325 AD, the Council of Nicaea approved it as a yearly practice for the church. They also wrote a pretty solid Creed. 

Since then, Christians have been observing a period of preparation leading up to Easter, or Resurrection Sunday. Each year, when one enters into the Lenten season, they are giving up something in order to prepare themselves for Easter, to invite God to work in their abstention, fasting, praying, worshiping so that He can further work in them, making them more like Christ (which is our long-obedience-in-the-same-direction goal). 

The call is rooted in Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, where He fasted, for forty days! I love that the Scriptures tell us that Jesus was 'led by the Spirit' into the wilderness, and then He returned in the 'power of the Spirit' after the forty days. To go from being led by the Spirit to living in the power of the Spirit... that's something I want, want more of, and to be honest, need right now. 

The invitation for our community is to fast for one 24-hour period each week (we're doing Thursdays), and during that time to pursue God through worship, scripture, and specifically prayer for the lost. There's a phrase thrown around - 'third space' - the space you frequent other than your home and your church. It is likely your work or school, for me it's the gym - Fitness Connection in Indian Trail to be exact. On Thursdays during Lent, I'll be fasting for 24 hours, and when I would be eating, I will choose to pray for that space, and the people there, and that my time there is less about me staying in shape (I did just turn 40!) and more about the way God is calling me to be a light, an aroma, an ambassador, and many other Biblical descriptors of a disciple of Jesus. 

The second invitation is to abstain from one or more things for forty days, beginning on February 20th. It'll make the time exactly forty days - some who observe from Ash Wednesday until Easter are given a 'break' from their abstentions on Sundays. I've found that when I break from what I'm giving up, it makes it harder to keep abstaining the other six days. So we're doing forty days, starting 2/20. Maybe it's desserts, or caffeine; perhaps it's social media or TV; some have even abstained from shopping online or from sleep, committing that extra hour towards worship, those extra funds towards generosity. 

The third (and last) invitation is to sabbath for one 24-hour period. Sabbath is an enigma for many today. We don't want to be like the 7th Day Adventists and their apparent legalistic observing of it (the term is 'strict Sabbatarian' for what it's worth). But we also likely don't sabbath, even though we are convinced the ten commandments should be allowed to be posted in court rooms across our country (it is the fourth of the ten, btw). The invitation in Sabbath is rooted in the two deliveries of the commandments, found in Exodus 20v11 and Deuteronomy 5v15 - the first being to 'make it holy' because God rested, and He's holy; the second being to 'make it fun' because God freed the Israelites from slavery - a 24 hour, 7 day a week existence based on producing - so now don't produce, and take a day of fun! More simply - pray and play. Make it holy, make it fun. 

I'm glad I saw it coming and planned it out better than in years prior, as I preached on the topic on February 11th, giving myself and our community nine-ten days to prepare. To invite the Holy Spirit to lead us into this period, like He led Jesus into the wilderness. To ask God 'what are you asking me to deny of myself' for this period, just like Jesus commands those who want to be His disciples to 'deny themselves' (Matthew 16v24).