The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Bible

This summer we are paying attention to the biggest of blockbusters: the story of God as it winds it way through scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. We think that this story is also woven into the fabric of our own story telling, reflections of which are seen in the stories we live, the stories we tell and the stories we see all around us. This summer we want to tell the biggest story we can tell, and to do it by intersecting Scripture with other complimentary stories.

Over these next 10 weeks, we will attempt to make our way through the length and breadth of Scripture, camping on some of it most significant themes and moments. Your summer school homework will be to consider 10 moments of the Biblical story along with 10 movies. We think that this summer exercise will help us get the story in a way we might not have previously. Sounds fun and interesting at the same time (an irresistable combination).

Here is how the summer will unfold.

July 5: Genesis 1-2
CREATION: before history there was a purpose
MOVIE: Earth

July 12: Genesis 3-4
PROMISE: something has gone wrong and yet there is still hope
MOVIE: Narnia: Prince Caspian

July 19: Genesis 12, 15, 18
COVENANT:history begins to move towards a destiny
MOVIE: Kingdom of Heaven

July 26: Exodus 11-14, 20
LAW: a community forms around a pattern of living
MOVIE: The Ten Commandments

August 2: I Samuel 16-18, 2 Samuel 7
DAVID: imperfect pictures from a God focused life
MOVIE: The Chosen

August 9: Hosea
PROPHETS: the continuing call to take God Seriously
MOVIE: Pride and Prejudice

August 16: Mark 1-8
JESUS: a new reality where what can be unmade is remade
MOVIE: The Kite Runner

August 23: Acts 13-18
CHURCH: the wonder and glory of the local story
MOVIE: Big Fish

August 30: Revelation 20-21
FUTURE: history is heading somewhere
MOVIE: Slumdog Millionaire

September 6: John 15
YOU & ME: the living tradition locally realized
MOVIE: Lord of the Rings

I am one who always looks forward to a few good summer reads, and here are ten stories that tell the big story. So wherever you wander over during these wonderful laid-back weeks, we hope that you are able to catch the podcast and engage the story once again.

embodied grace

I believe in stories. The Bible comes to us as a story -- the big story of God of course, but also the many smaller stories of people and communities. Within the biblical story, little stories intersect with the big story in a way that is absolutely stunning in beauty and depth and meaning. The Bible teaches us to pay attention, to notice the stories that are everywhere, the little stories that reveal the big story of God and grace in the context of real human life.

Perhaps the biggest reason that I believe in stories is that they show us how ideas can be embodied in real people and situations. And this is extremely important. Ideas on their own float disconnectedly over life, but story helps us see how ideas can be embodied and worked out. For instance, if we at Westside King’s Church want to talk about and deepen our understanding of grace, than I think we need a story of grace. We can believe in grace but we need to see it, feel it. Stories help us do that.

As communicators at Westside, we continually talk about how we need to articulate our Christian faith, how we should “language” it. But even as we converse about such heady matters, we agree that God must be modeled in a way that goes beyond just our words. Or to put it differently, there are words to say about God and there are living models of God, and the second is as important as the first.

Simply put, unless all of our God-talk lives in embodied action, it tends to fall flat. For instance, I could take a big stack of books, give them to my daughters and say, “there you go, everything you need to know about God and grace”. Absurd right? What my daughters really need to know is that I love them and am deeply proud of them. They have a better chance of knowing something about God and grace if their Dad loves them. I can fill in the details as we go.

Paul Vitz has written on what he calls “the psychology of atheism”. He proposes that there is an underlying condition in some minds and hearts which makes them distrust the infinite-personal God. Vitz contends that disbelief in God is not an entirely rational thing, even though atheists often claim that their case is so. His book, The Faith of the Fatherless, is an examination of the stories of some great unbelievers (Voltaire, Rousseau, Marx, Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, and many others), as well as some great believers (Pascal, Wilberforce, Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, and so on). What he notes is the way the stories of those who find faith so hard to commit to had their thoughts shaped by a common theme, what Vitz calls the “deficient father thesis”. He says that the personal stories of famous unbelievers are often attached to an absent, or abusive, or weak father figure. And the biographies of famous believers often reveal an opposite story, the presence of a faithful and loving father.

There are, of course, qualifications and extensions to Vitz’s basic thesis. Our ability to believe is not completely determined by our biological fathers; there can be a “father figures”. There are enough exceptions to Vitz’s theory to show that his thesis cannot be the rule. Nevertheless, Vitz’s study reveals an important insight into the way faith is formed in us. In other words, Christian faith does not develop merely as a process of rationalization, of arguments and ideas. If it develops through thinking at all, it is through that kind of thinking that is enabled to see the world as a loving and secure place, the place where grace has been seen and felt. Perhaps the most important insight is that faith is powerfully helped by living models, especially the model closest to us -- Dad. When a Dad models faith, we tend to find it much easier to believe.

This past Sunday we offered the story of the prodigal son as a story of a living model. At the heart of that story comes the moment when the father runs down the road and “falls on his son’s neck”. I love that phrase because it says so much; and what it says you can see and feel. I would encourage you to read the story again in Luke 15:11-32. And as you do, consider who your living models and examples of faith have been, and to whom you might be a living model of faith.

As you think about these things, remember what Francis was reported to have said, “preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words”.

See you this Sunday and 9:29 or 11:11. This is volunteer appreciation Sunday and the Barbeques will be fired up. Enjoy your weekend.

the power of repetition

Today I will be brief.

Chris Wiersma often refers to the idea that we have 16 acres, 1000 people, 6+ billion people in the world to serve, and 360 degrees of possibility. I have heard him say that often over this past year, but it was on Sunday that those words got inside me and I said to myself, “that’s right! the possibilities begin locally but expand globally! who knows the impact we can have if we awaken to them”. One could call that positive self-talk, or one could consider such thoughts a premise for a really significant prayer. I think, at least for me at that moment, it was the later. I was inspired, and all because of Chris had repeated something enough times for it to take root in my own consciousness.

My simple thought today is this: what are you repeating in your life? What words, or actions, or habits, or disciplines are you continually rehearsing? Choose well, for repetition will have a way of getting inside of you, and eventually become part of who you are.

I continually talk about the need to say and understand The Lord’s Prayer, both as a daily discipline, but also as a way to understand the heart and essence of prayer. For the past 4 years I have been saying and thinking through this model prayer daily, to the degree that I am learning to enter its wisdom and richness in ways that were not present to me before I began this habit.

Look for something to repeat, something worthwhile and valuable, something that will allow you to sink a deep shaft into the truth and beauty and goodness of the world we live in and the God we serve. Choose wisely (a passage from Scripture is best), and then let it sit with you a long time. If you are mindful of this advice later, I would love to know a year from now how repeating those words or thoughts changed your life over time. There is power in repetition.

This Sunday we continue our series for June, Things I Wish I Could Say. See you on the weekend.

take in the season

Summer is finally here. I am announcing that it has finally arrived after a very uncertain beginning. This year, here in Calgary at least, it has been one very long wait. I sometimes wonder if anyone loves the warm weather better than we do in the foothills of the Canadian rockies. And because we wait so long, summer seems to be that much more of a joyful thing when it finally does come.

At least we know the meaning of seasonal life. Living in a climate such as ours gives us a certain kind of life experience; we learn to be patient. While we are sometimes stunned by a snowy Saturday in June (June 6, 2009), we are never totally surprised. Instead, such days are kind of a joke. We know that as our days lengthen, summer inevitably follows.

What I want to remind us of today is one of the clichés that I myself love and honor. And that is this: that life comes to us in seasons. Life presents its ups and downs, its ins and outs, its stops and starts. Life has rhythm and pattern. What we experience as we move from season to season is not of the same nature: there is a time for growth and expansion and building, and another time for rest and quietness and healing. We need all the variations and differences in order to live a full and connected life.

So I give you once more the words of “the preacher” (Heb: Kohelet, or preacher), the wise voice who reminds us that “there is a time for everything”. Of course you have heard this famous poem from Ecclesiastes chapter 3, but I hope it reminds you to take in the season we are in, and not to miss a single bit of it.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

So take care to live in the season before you. Be present to God and the particular meaning of these beautiful months of changed pace and freedom from winter’s tyranny. Who knows but that this summer will bring to your life something you previously did not have room for, a friendship you didn’t see coming, or a way of thinking that you didn’t think possible. There has to be a time for everything.

And now, if you will excuse us, we want to fully enjoy the warmth and sun and outdoor activity for a few months.

This Sunday we begin a new series for June, Things I Wish I Could Say. See you at the coffee pot at 9:29 or 11:11 am.

guidance

This past Sunday we completed our series The Baby, The Bathwater, and the Spiritual Life.  Stay tuned for a follow-up conversation in our Deep Dive Digital podcast.  That should be out next week.  You can learn how to subscribe to “deep dive digital” podcasts as well as to our regular message podcasts at wkc.org/community/sermons.

The message this past weekend was on the subject of guidance.  We took Acts 16:6-10 as our text, which almost becomes a lesson in ancient mid-eastern geography.  Here is the piece of the story we focused on (have fun with the names):

Paul and his friends went through Phrygia and Galatia, but the Holy Spirit would not let them preach in Asia.  After they arrived in Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not let them.  So they went on through Mysia until they came to Troas.  During the night, Paul had a vision of someone from Macedonia who was standing there and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!"  After Paul had seen the vision, we began looking for a way to go to Macedonia. We were sure that God had called us to preach the good news there.

The story has a simple structure, even if the place names are not familiar.  Paul and his traveling companions attempt to continue their work of spreading and consolidating the message of Jesus, but find themselves hindered in getting their good intentions done.  We are not told how this happens, just that their attempts to go where they wanted were somehow hindered or frustrated.  Finally, however, they come to realize the road forward lead in another direction, which becomes the lesson for why they went through what they did.  We find in this elliptical story a few very important ideas about guidance.

First, it is helpful to see that this text is found in the middle of an ongoing story.  A lot has already happened, a lot is still to come.  This stands as a moment within the lives of active people.  By active I do not mean busy (busy-ness can be one form of living out of control; busyness can actually be a waste of precious time).  When I say active, I mean that one acts, that one considers the meaning of life and takes steps toward a higher and better meaning.  The principle is this: God directs active people, while stationary people are harder to move (wondering what God’s purposes are for your life? how long have you sat and wondered? do something!).

But guidance is probably the thing we need most in the middle of our faith stories.  After the ease and joy of a good beginning, it is that season I like to call “the long middle” that creates the greatest challenge.  We launch into this Jesus life, we get involved, serve, contribute; but what do we do when our circumstances fail to line up the way we hoped they would?  What do we do when certainties wear thin and expectations are unmet?

If you bore down a little deeper into this story, you would find that this moment represents a critical transition.  It is right here where, through several misfires, Paul and his fellow travelers are released into a bigger vision and a higher purpose.  Paul has been trying to revisit familiar territory but the Holy Spirit was about to demonstrate that he had other plans for him.  We too should realize that it is possible to be stuck in a mindset or model that God wants us to move beyond.  Sometimes that is revealed to us by frustrations and hindrances.  Whatever the case, we have to be wise in discerning the meaning of our circumstances.

So after two frustrating “no’s” (which are not explained to us but only stated that God was somehow in them), the band of travelers waste no more time but hurries along to the port city of Troas.  Are they confused?  Perhaps.  But this new place becomes the gateway into God’s bigger yes.

Paul has a vision, a dream, and the vision has a face attached to a place: a man from Macedonia, just over the Aegean Sea from where he was, calling “come over and help us”.  The mystery of why they have been stalling dissipates into it is specific and do-able opportunity.  The guidance God gives is remarkable clear and understandable.  And so it is that if we are open to guidance, it tends to make itself plain to us.  If life is an endless mystery, it is more likely that the cloud of confusion is in our hearts, or between our ears.  Mark Twain famously said, “It is not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that trouble me, it is the parts that I do understand”.

This is the first of the so-called “we” passages in Acts and is probably the point at which Luke, the author, joins the group.  Here is the exciting conclusion to this brief story of transition: the word translated “conclude” (GK: bibadzo) literally means “to bring together” and suggests several things: that after all of their circumstances and experiences (the frustrations and hindrances, the renewed sense of possibility), they were, at that point, able to “put it all together”.  They could see the meaning of what had happened to them, and they could see the road forward.  The word also suggests that they were able to consult with each other and in community decide on this new direction; they concluded that “God had called us” through the vision God gave to Paul.

This Sunday is Baptism Sunday, a special celebration of faith and commitment which is meaningful for both the candidates and for the whole church.  Join us at 9:29 or 11:11 am.