"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free..." I have had a LOT of conversations about that Bible verse from Paul's letter to the Corinthians. And everyone I've talked to has always been very concerned to emphasize that they do NOT have to be a servant or slave to anyone. (And the other popular emphasis is on the "male nor female" part.)

But what about these words? "...whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." (Mark 10:44) Or this one, "no servant can serve two masters..." (Lk16:13) Or "no servant is greater than his master..." (Jn.13:16) We talk a lot about being God's children. But would it be so bad to be God's servants? Even slaves?...

I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains... (Philemon 14)

The letter that Paul wrote to Philemon is the epistle lesson for this Sunday, and my sermon text. But it's about a man who has a run-away slave. Can you think of anything more remote from our daily lives than that?

First of all...

Click the link to view a slideshow(10 minutes long) about our new mural at the school. Based on Acts 17, it is a summary of our ministry in Ann Arbor, where God has called us to proclaim the good news about Jesus.

"Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." Acts 17:22-23

OK, Paul wasn't really church shopping, because we know that he wasn't interested in worshiping any of the false gods whose worship he witnessed. BUT he did pay a lot more attention that many people do today, even when they're looking for a church home for their family.

People who are church shopping (or "window worshiping" as I like to think of it) often seem...

"So [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there." Acts 17:16-17

American Christians are certainly not strangers to the idea of going into the marketplace. The earliest settlers of this continent were big on free enterprise and gained a reputation for sharp trading. We love the marketplace.

But if there is a separation of church and state here, there is an even deeper separation of church and market. And no one forces us. We do it ourselves. Why is that?...

First of all, you need to understand that I try really hard to keep myself out of my preaching. Or at least, in a way I do. It's strange.

Preaching should not be about the preacher. There's enough ego involved in it already without pointing to yourself deliberately. Preaching and teaching in a Christian church should be all about Christ. And yet, there is always a personal element that creeps in (see 1 Cor. 15:1-3 for an example).

And that's what is weird about our new mural...

I just came from a small town bank branch where I bought a VISA gift card. You know, the kind you load up with cash and then give it to someone who can use it like a debit card? Only in order to buy the card I had to pay in cash (which I got from an ATM, paying a $2 fee). I had to give them my driver's license. And my Social Security number. I had to sign my name. I had to pay a $4 fee for the card. And all this when I'm the one who is putting the money at risk by giving it to them!!! Why were they so suspicious???

Someone asked [Jesus], "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"

When I read things like this in the Bible, my first inclination is to wonder, what is behind this question? Why would someone ask this? (I always think that way when you ask me questions too. "Pastor, is adultery always wrong?")

This idea is nothing new. It was popular among the Jews (both the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes) to think that their own group was a special remnant. Sound familiar? We ALL like to think that...

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time..."

Boy, you can say that again!

Think of a time that your parents had to discipline you. I'm remembering a lot of time spent sitting in a chair on one side of a room, with my brother Dan sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. I'm remembering time sitting at the kitchen table when everyone else was gone, with Mom waiting and waiting until I could choke down my stone cold vegetables.

What discipline stands out in your memory?...

And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched..."

Good grief! Can you think of a darker verse to end the book of Isaiah? And Isaiah's prophecy has sometimes been called "the Fifth Gospel"! We often stumble over verses like this - texts that most pastors would never dream of preaching on. Can you imagine the sermon outline...

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses...

Maybe it's my age, but I'm starting to really appreciate this concept more and more. I had a friend in high school who liked to walk through cemeteries and read the headstones. Her dad was a history teacher, so she maybe had an extra appreciation for what was going on during the dates in question. But she felt a connection to the people buried there, imagining what they had lived through.

Who do you appreciate?...

Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.

Boy, I feel like I've preached on THIS text a lot lately. Well, not on these verses exactly, but on this same idea. The problem is, we are truly surrounded, inundated, permeated with ideas, philosophies, worldviews, thoughts, policy proposals, images, and hopes. And how many of them are from God? And how many of them do we, without realizing it, allow to seep into our hearts and minds?

The books I talked about yesterday talked a lot about the importance of a senior pastor doing "preaching and vision casting." But where does that vision come from?...

I'm writing from the parking lot of a church in the Lansing area, waiting for a meeting with a group of pastors. We've been discussing a series of books that were put out by the Willow  Creek Association, based on an enormous survey (80,000 church members). There idea is this: to find a way to measure the human heart, sort of like the Grinch's heart is measured in the Dr. Seuss story when it grows 3 sizes larger from 2 sizes too small.

What do you think? Can we use surveys, or interviews, or behavior to determine who is a mature believer and who is not so mature? Can we put people into faith categories?

We've had a lively debate, probably because...

I've been out of town intermittently all through July and half of August! I thought that it would be easy to blog even while I was away. And, technically, it could have been. But it's funny how your time just gets used up.

Anyway, I pray that I am back now for a good long stretch, and I've got lots of new thoughts from the dozens of people I have talked to all over the synod and the state of Michigan.

So I'm working on a wedding sermon for a couple of young friends. As I have been increasingly aware of my old-geezerness, I'm tempted to offer all kinds of advice. A sort of Poor Richard's Almanac for marriage. But the truth is, marriages are all different, and people are all different, and the challenges they face are all different. There's only ONE thing that will be the same in every single marriage on earth...

(I'm back from vacation, working from my hotel room at the synod convention in Houston. Internet access is $10 per day here, so these blog postings finally have a real monetary value!)

Jesus replied to a man who wanted to know how to be saved, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" The man answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself." And then Jesus said, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live."

"Do this and you will live." 

Good grief! Have you thought about what Jesus said here? "Do this and you will live." He makes it sound so simple. Even with his parable, he only touches on our love (or lack of it) for our neighbor in the example of the Samaritan. But what about the first half of the command?...

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.

God talks about the city of Jerusalem in highly emotional terms. And obviously, even today Jews, Christians, and Muslims can all be very passionate about this city. But why?

Do you feel that strongly about your old home town?

Perhaps it's because I've moved around so much, but I don't really feel that way. In fact, I sometimes struggle to know how to answer when people ask where I'm "from". Well, I grew up through elementary school in LaPorte, Indiana, so I'm a Hoosier. But I was born in Rockford, Illinois (so I'm a "sucker," my dad said). But then I lived in Wisconsin for several years. Does that make me a Badger? And I've lived in Michigan more years than any of those places, but "Michigander" is the least interesting of all the nicknames.

What difference does it make? How does it change your view of...

Finally! It took me a long time, but after many requests I have figured out how to post a lot of the pictures from my trip to Sudan. Let's see if I can figure out how to embed a slide show directly into this blog post...

OK, it seems to be working. But it doesn't seem to start at the beginning. Sorry about that. I hope you can make sense of it anyway! You can go here to see a full-size version of the slides show.

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

We had a great discussion about these verses yesterday in our staff meeting. It revolved around the paradox in the text, the idea that we're free to serve. If we have to serve other people, how can we say we're free? And if we're called to be free, then why can't we go use our freedom to serve ourselves?

Of course, the theological answer is...

"What are you doing here, Elijah"

Wow, sometimes I wonder. Is it that the Holy Spirit arranges for the Word to be eerily appropriate for my circumstances each time I read it? Or is it that passages like this just ALWAYS fit?

Nobody is trying to kill me, but I still think I know how Elijah felt. Do you? Certainly he had seen God's power. He should have had no reason to worry. But it was all just too much. He was overwhelmed...