I’m having real trouble getting started today. Pass it off to still adjusting to trying to fill in for La Donna’s absence (I know, it is only day three and there are lots to go. I start falling apart now and we are all in trouble). Or maybe it was the early morning phone call from a woman who wanted to talk about demons in her house. And then called back later to ask if I was a racist. When I told her I had adopted children from South Korea, she said, “Yeah, that’s just what a white man would say.”
Or maybe it is the fact that I woke up with a sore throat and cough and a long list of things to accomplish and no will to do any of it. I am predicting that if you are reading this at all, it is now quite late in the day. After the wedding at least. Did I mention I also have a wedding this afternoon? Sigh.
Maybe we should just take a look at the verses and see if that can jump start anything. At Aldersgate we are in the third week of our Extravagant Generosity series. Each week we are invited to think about generosity as both a spiritual discipline and a gift of joy. And to do that we look at a few simple verses. This week is no exception. We have three single verses on which to hang our thoughts. I cheated a little bit and expanded one of the readings for worship. So, here is what we will hear together:
Colossians 3:1-4 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
And with that reading are these two verses: Matthew 6:33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. And – Joel 2:28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
Bishop Schnase says that these verses are about vision, about hope, about looking beyond the moment. More than that, they speak about charting a course, a personal as well as a corporate course. Who are you going to be, and who are we going to be? Those are the questions raised by these verses.
Certainly we are planners, we are hopers. Christ gave a sense of mission. We don’t come up with it ourselves. That’s what Joel says to us. God says “I will pour out my Spirit.” It is given to us, it isn’t self created. It is claimed.
That’s what Jesus was talking about in Matthew, there in the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 33 follows the verses about worry. Look at the birds he says. They are energetic about the right things. They spend themselves, not on worry, but on mission. On being who they were created to be. This not worrying thing is not about lethargy, but about direction. About putting your efforts where they need to be put. About putting your energy where it will bring the most effect. About putting your money where your heart is.
Paul tells us in Colossians that we need to look up, look beyond, look to Christ to find our hope, our meaning, our reason for being. What are you hoping for, hoping to be, hoping to be a part of? Important questions, life changing, course setting questions.
I can’t argue with any of it. And yet in the malaise of a less than perfect day, I’m wondering if there is something else to cling to in these words. I wonder if there is a smaller word for those of us too low down to see the horizon, let alone beyond it. Maybe shifting perspective still works.
In between the first paragraphs of this essay and this one a day happened. Lots of things, good and not so good, and then some that were just things. Yet when all you can see is your own limits, when all you are full of are your own failures or your own emptiness, it is hard to see high enough to set those goals or to dream those dreams.
That’s when you really need to reset your mind. A hard thing to do, I know. But maybe we don’t need to see all the way to heaven in order to find this reset button. Maybe we don’t need to look higher, but deeper.
A few moments ago, Maddie showed up with a tiny cup full of medicine. Having watched her mother ask me a hundred times if I ought to take something for my ailments and then give up and bring me something; Maddie decided to take a short cut and simply brought it to me. And I drank it. It tasted of heaven.
A little while before that, my email pinged. It was a quick word from Africa. The travelers are safe and settling in for bed so that they can get up and worship in that exuberant African expression of joy. It read like scripture.
Join us for worship at Aldersgate and we’ll be back in the big picture. I’ll be right up there with Bishop Schnase inviting us all to aim at heaven, to catch the winds of the Spirit in our sails and set off to where Christ would have us go and be co-builders of the Kingdom in our neighborhood and community.
But for us here, it is a smaller vision. It is a call to see Christ in the everyday, little things that we might overlook unless we look up and pay attention.
Seek the things that are above, they may be closer than you think.
Or maybe it is the fact that I woke up with a sore throat and cough and a long list of things to accomplish and no will to do any of it. I am predicting that if you are reading this at all, it is now quite late in the day. After the wedding at least. Did I mention I also have a wedding this afternoon? Sigh.
Maybe we should just take a look at the verses and see if that can jump start anything. At Aldersgate we are in the third week of our Extravagant Generosity series. Each week we are invited to think about generosity as both a spiritual discipline and a gift of joy. And to do that we look at a few simple verses. This week is no exception. We have three single verses on which to hang our thoughts. I cheated a little bit and expanded one of the readings for worship. So, here is what we will hear together:
Colossians 3:1-4 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
And with that reading are these two verses: Matthew 6:33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. And – Joel 2:28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
Bishop Schnase says that these verses are about vision, about hope, about looking beyond the moment. More than that, they speak about charting a course, a personal as well as a corporate course. Who are you going to be, and who are we going to be? Those are the questions raised by these verses.
Certainly we are planners, we are hopers. Christ gave a sense of mission. We don’t come up with it ourselves. That’s what Joel says to us. God says “I will pour out my Spirit.” It is given to us, it isn’t self created. It is claimed.
That’s what Jesus was talking about in Matthew, there in the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 33 follows the verses about worry. Look at the birds he says. They are energetic about the right things. They spend themselves, not on worry, but on mission. On being who they were created to be. This not worrying thing is not about lethargy, but about direction. About putting your efforts where they need to be put. About putting your energy where it will bring the most effect. About putting your money where your heart is.
Paul tells us in Colossians that we need to look up, look beyond, look to Christ to find our hope, our meaning, our reason for being. What are you hoping for, hoping to be, hoping to be a part of? Important questions, life changing, course setting questions.
I can’t argue with any of it. And yet in the malaise of a less than perfect day, I’m wondering if there is something else to cling to in these words. I wonder if there is a smaller word for those of us too low down to see the horizon, let alone beyond it. Maybe shifting perspective still works.
In between the first paragraphs of this essay and this one a day happened. Lots of things, good and not so good, and then some that were just things. Yet when all you can see is your own limits, when all you are full of are your own failures or your own emptiness, it is hard to see high enough to set those goals or to dream those dreams.
That’s when you really need to reset your mind. A hard thing to do, I know. But maybe we don’t need to see all the way to heaven in order to find this reset button. Maybe we don’t need to look higher, but deeper.
A few moments ago, Maddie showed up with a tiny cup full of medicine. Having watched her mother ask me a hundred times if I ought to take something for my ailments and then give up and bring me something; Maddie decided to take a short cut and simply brought it to me. And I drank it. It tasted of heaven.
A little while before that, my email pinged. It was a quick word from Africa. The travelers are safe and settling in for bed so that they can get up and worship in that exuberant African expression of joy. It read like scripture.
Join us for worship at Aldersgate and we’ll be back in the big picture. I’ll be right up there with Bishop Schnase inviting us all to aim at heaven, to catch the winds of the Spirit in our sails and set off to where Christ would have us go and be co-builders of the Kingdom in our neighborhood and community.
But for us here, it is a smaller vision. It is a call to see Christ in the everyday, little things that we might overlook unless we look up and pay attention.
Seek the things that are above, they may be closer than you think.
Shalom,
Derek
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