You Remembered Me?

And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

– Luke 23:42

However, there’s a catch! The thief knew something. Thieves know where to look for valuables. They understand that you have to really seek out a hidden treasure. They know that the jewels are in a big black locked safe. They know that the cash is two stories underground at the bank. They know where things of worth are stored. So, even from his cross, he had scoped out the situation, he had cased the joint, and in the right moment, he made his less-than-sinister move.

He asked for the only thing Jesus had left. He asked for his memory. He asked to be remembered. "Jesus, please... Will you remember me?" Surely some scoffed at the pitiful request. The thief did not ask for the nails to be removed, for healing of his hands and feet, and to be given back to his family to restart a moral life. Why ask to be remembered? Because a memory is worth more than anything; memory it is unbound by time or location. Remembering someone is a hidden act of love. The people who remember you are the ones who truly care for you. Think of those people throughout your life who acted on their memory of you; the picked up the phone or come by or sent you a letter in the post for no other reason than the fact that you are you. Of all the people, places, and things to remember; they remembered you.

I suspect the first thing the thief said in Paradise to Jesus came in the form of a gasping question, "You remembered me?" and Jesus replied, "Of course, I remembered you. I remember everyone and everything."

Creek-bed Hermeneutics

Here’s the creek-bed in Woodstock, Georgia

I grew up in a small farm town in Georgia called "Woodstock." We had a big wooded back yard and a creek that ran through it. I would play by the creek; jumping across back and forth back and forth. I'd climb to the top of the hill where Eubanks Road butted up to our property.  There was a stop sign there and that's the spot people would throw their beer cans and coke bottles out into our woods. I'd  collect them and take them down by the creek and line them up and shoot them with my BB gun.

Georgia boy. I know.

One of my favorite things to do by the creek was to take the time to turn over big stones and see what was underneath. There would be big centipedes, lanky earth worms, and little round rolly pollys all squirming about. A whole ecosystem; a whole world at work in the soft Georgia clay was going to go undiscovered if I didn't stop and flip the stone over.

What does that have to do with Biblical hermeneutics?

Because I think about that creek-bed so often as I spend my Tuesdays locked away in my study of Scripture. My responsibility as a preaching and teaching pastor is to stay childlike in just about everything I do. Every week I face the temptation to get too serious, too grown up, too academic, or worse, too self righteous, and when I do any of those things, my faith dries up and I can no longer trace the hand of my Father or sense the nearness of the Spirit.

So every Tuesday I make my way into my study not as “Pastor Alex” or “Dr. Early” but I go back in my memory and try to find the head space of that ten year old boy on a hot, humid, summer afternoon in 1990. I am responsible to playfully and curiously kneel down in the creek-bed of God's Word. Once I’m there, I am to slowly, imaginatively, carefully, and expectantly start turning stones over; stones that are shaped like words, phrases, syntax and grammar and history.... and as I turn over these stones it is within minutes that I find myself in the world of wonderful world of God's word – it is alive with “creeping things” (Gen. 1:26) all moving around and my responsibility is to take it all in! The creek-bed hermeneutic keeps my imagination and emotion engaged in study. The creek-bed is where I’m present to God, myself, the world, and even the earthworms.

Anonymous: God Only Gives the Present

“Be attentive to time and the way you spend it. Nothing is more precious. This is evident when you recall that in one tiny moment heaven may be gained or lost. God, the master of time, never gives the future. He gives only the present, moment by moment.”

— The Cloud of Unknowing, citied in Bernard McGinn, Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, p. 264.

Manning: In Touch

“Silent solitude makes true speech possible and personal. If I am not in touch with my own belovedness, then I cannot touch the sacredness of others. If I am estranged from myself, I am likewise a stranger to others. Experience has taught me that I connect best with others when I connect with the core of myself. When I allow God to liberate me from unhealthy dependence on people, I listen more attentively, love more unselfishly, and am more compassionate and playful. I take myself less seriously, become aware that the breath of the Father is on my face and that my countenance is bright with laughter in the midst of an adventure I thoroughly enjoy.”

— Brennan Manning, Abba's Child, p.39

Faithfully Present to One Thing A Day

In 2015, I took some significant time away from ministry to work on my marriage, finish my doctorate, write a book, and hone in on the second half of life. Who am I? What am I to do? Most importantly, how am I to be? Through weekly therapy, hard soul work, and deep introspection; a few fundamental principles emerged:

“All of my wealth is in my relationships

Jesus is Gentle

Live and die in gratitude”

Those personal convictions then guided me into the vision of practicing a life of faithful presence to God, myself, and others. I have chosen to show up to my own life, and I've found the life of faithful presence to be twice as rewarding as it is difficult. I genuinely feel alive. Yet, living comes at a cost and will not come without some real intentionality. So to be completely present in the day-to-day, I noticed that it would take more than an inward orientation; it would require committing to a kind of task day by day, moment by moment. This is what led me to do "one thing a day." I pushed by from the desk and thought about the kinds of work I do. As a pastor, I am responsible for leading, going to meetings, developing leaders, studying and writing, planning, and being with people. In committing to one thing a day, I have found that I can stay in my lane, and my ADD or some new creative initiative can't totally get the best of me and must stay in check. Of course, life cannot be 'controlled,' but if it can be managed a bit better, I'm in!

Sundays.

On Sundays, I have all of my regular pastoral responsibilities. I get up early, spend some time in prayer, listen to worship music, read the sermon manuscript, and head to the church. I meet with our staff and those participating in liturgy and make any last-minute changes. Then, I go out to my "perch" about 20 minutes before worship begins. I've stood on those steps every Sunday for the last six years to welcome people to worship regardless of the weather. I'll preach, oversee the sacraments, give the benediction, speak to people, do a Q&A (we just started this!) over the sermon, and answer questions of doctrine or practice. Then it's time to take it to the house and hang with our Small Group (on the days we're meeting). Lastly, I'll participate in leading members' meetings when we have those on Sunday nights.

Mondays.

Mondays are meeting days. I meet with my assistant, Meg, first thing on Mondays. We look at the week ahead for myself, our staff, and what's on the church's horizon. I'll have about 15 minutes to reset before heading into our Staff Meeting. (These meetings are seriously awesome! Perhaps I'll share about those soon?) Then, I spend the rest of the day connecting in 1:1's.

Tuesdays.

Tuesdays are study days. I don't meet with anyone or work on anything other than simply studying and writing the sermon and getting ahead on future sermons.

Wednesdays.

Wednesdays are planning days. This is where I work closely with Mark Dunford, our Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Operations. So, for example, this week, we worked on our Elder Candidate strategy and dialed in what we're going to be doing with the Beeson Divinity School Students who will be here at Redemption for two weeks (this is gonna be awesome!), and finalized our armature for our Refining Redemption document that we'll roll out in a few weeks (vision!).

Thursdays.

Thursdays are people days! I love this day so much! It's the day I get to spend from sun up to sundown with people in our church doing pastoral care. Each Thursday morning, I spend between 60-90 minutes with about 12-15 senior citizens in assisted living care (a couple in our church invited me to begin a religious studies group; it is fascinating! People from all over the world, with differing ethnicities, religious beliefs, and histories all, all come together for the most incredible time together). The rest of the day is spent going to coffee, grabbing lunch, meeting in my study, or going for a walk. Each Thursday evening, I host a family from Redemption at my house for dinner and a time to connect.

Fridays and Saturdays.

I'm off on Fridays and Saturdays. I take Friday mornings to write. Currently, I'm working on Thinking About God. This is a theology book for elementary schoolers due to publish next year with B&H Publishing. There's another fun project that just might be taking shape, too! After my time of writing, I'll jog, work in the yard, cook, and hang with family and friends. On Saturdays, I spend all my time with the family.

Getting to serve our church in these ways would be utterly impossible were it not for Jana, our elders, staff, and faithful members of Redemption. I want to do this for a long, long, long time. 

How Being Loved and Liked By God has Changed My Life

“Words without poetry lack passion; words without passion lack persuasion; words without persuasion lack power. When the language of should and must predominates, both the preached and written word are a barren wasteland void of passion, persuasion, and power. At the close of too many sermons, the exhortation ‘Now let us...’ carries neither conviction nor clout. Without sharing of personal experience, prophetic preaching is impossible. The Word of God must become incarnate in the life of the preacher.
”

— Brennan Manning, The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives, 14.

“This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (whom I think well of; whom I like).”

— Mark 1:11

For just over a decade, the primary focus of my Christian life has been the hourly attemp to root myself completely in the love of God. At times I have wavered from the path and the Holy Spirit has been faithful to bring me back through the honesty of my wife, a look on the face of one of my children, the word of a friend, or the counsel of my Spiritual Director.

When I am aware that I am both loved and liked by God, everything changes. Here are some examples….

Being both loved and liked by God has consistently rescued me from over identifying with my work. As someone who is very focused and very driven, I can easily fall into the trap of thinking "I am what I make."

Being both loved and liked by God has continued to help me to distinguish the truth from the lies that I learned at home, in the church, or by society, or the lies that I tell myself.

Being both loved and liked by God has helped me to step into the spaces of grief and face them for what they really are and to honor the pain of loss, betrayal, and death. Were I left utterly to myself and psychotherapy, I just don't think I could have engaged at the levels I have because the pain was just too much.

Being both loved and liked by God has brought me a sense of peace and trust as life has in some ways not taken the shape that I hoped it would.

Being both loved and liked by God I can engage the world around me.

Being both loved and liked by God continues to offer me strength to accept my own weaknesses and shortcomings rather than constantly overcompensate for them.

Being both loved and liked by God enables me to hear hard things from my wife when I need to be corrected.

Being both loved and liked by God helps me apologize to my kids when I am rude or impatient.

Being both loved and liked by God helps me to stay present and not chase every single opportunity as though it were an obligation.

Being both loved and liked by God helps me to not compete with nor be intimidated by my peers.

Being both loved and liked by God I interpret and experience my friends differently because, they too, even in the more challenging moments, are still a means of God's grace to me.

Peel an Orange

“Or, conclusively, peel an orange. Do it lovingly-in perfect quarters like little boats, or in staggered exfoliations like a flat map of the round world, or in one long spiral, as my grandfather used to do. Nothing is more likely to become garbage than orange rind; but for as long as anyone looks at it in delight, it stands a million triumphant miles from the trash heap.

That, you know, is why the world exists at all. It remains outside the cosmic garbage can of nothingness, not because it is such a solemn necessity that nobody can get rid of it, but because it is the orange peel hung on God’s chandelier, the wishbone in His kitchen closet. He likes it; therefore, it stays. The whole marvelous collection of stones, skins, feathers, and string exists because at least one lover has never quite taken His eye off it, because the Dominus vivicans has his delight with the sons of men.”

— Robert Capon, The Supper of the Lamb: A culinary Reflection, p.5

On Pascha

“He who hung the earth is hanging.
He who fixed the heavens in place has been fixed in place.
He who laid the foundations of the universe has been laid on a tree.
The master has been profaned. God has been murdered.
The King of Israel has been destroyed by an Israelite right hand.

For when the people did not tremble, the earth shook.
When the people did not fear, the heavens were afraid.
When the people did not rend their garments, the angel rent his own.
When the people did not lament, the Lord thundered from heaven, and the most high gave voice.

The Lord clothed himself with humanity, and with suffering on behalf of the suffering one, and bound on behalf of the one constrained, and judged on behalf of the one entombed, rose from the dead and cried aloud:

’Who takes issue with me? Let him stand before me.
I set free the condemned.
I give life to the dead.
I raise up the entombed. Who will contradict me?’

’It is I’, says the Christ,
’I am he who destroys death,
and triumphs over the enemy,
and crushes Hades, a
and binds the strong man,
and bears humanity off to the heavenly heights.’
’It is I’, says the Christ.

’So come all families of people, adulterated with sin, and receive forgiveness of sins.
For I am your freedom.
I am the Passover of salvation,
I am the lamb slaughtered for you,
I am your ransom,
I am your life,
I am your light,
I am your salvation,
I am your resurrection,
I am your King.
I shall raise you up by my right hand,
I will lead you to the heights of heaven,
there shall I show you the everlasting father.”

He it is who made the heaven and the earth,
and formed humanity in the beginning,
who was proclaimed through the law and the prophets,
who took flesh from a virgin,
who was hung on a tree,
who was buried in earth,
who was raised from the dead,
and ascended to the heights of heaven,
who sits at the right hand of the father,
who has the power to save all things,
through whom the father acted from the beginning and forever.

This is the alpha and omega,
this is the beginning and the end,
the ineffable beginning and the incomprehensible end.
This is the Christ,
This is the King,
this is Jesus,
this is the commander,
this is the Lord,
this is he who rose from the dead,
this is he who sits at the right hand of the father,
he bears the father and is borne by him.
To him be the glory and the might for ever.
Amen.”

— St. Melito of Sardis, On Pascha, 190 AD Entries 96, 100-105

von Balthasar: Finding God at Every Moment

“Pressured man on the run is always postponing his encounter with God to a ‘free moment’ or a ‘time of prayer’ that must constantly be rescheduled, a time that he must laboriously wrest from his overburdened workday. A child that knows God can find him at every moment because every moment opens up for him and shows him the very ground of time: as it if reposed on eternity itself. And this eternity, without undergoing change, walks hand in hand for the child with transitory time. God defines himself as ‘I am who I am’, which also means: My being is such that I shall always be present in every moment of becoming.”

— Unless You Become Like This Child, pp. 54-55.

Bullies and the Bull

“From playgrounds, to boardrooms, to bedrooms, bullies camouflage their insecurities, fears, and shame as they harm others. In vain, they aggressively work out their own trauma on others and the grief within never subsides; it only compounds. Rather than acknowledge, befriend, and attend to their own wounds, they cope through destructive behavior. Sometimes it is physical, other times it is verbal, but every time it is emotional. Victims of bullying know firsthand that the emotional toll can outlast any physical or verbal assault. That’s because bullies pound not only the flesh but the spirit. And the bruised, discolored spirit can limp for decades.

In the distance, John’s gospel howls; “I have come that they might have life and have it to the full.” His shalom comes through acts of bravery, confrontation, and prophetic love. When self-righteous men in robes were exploiting the poor in the name of God, Jesus stood up. Sometimes reckoning, accountability, and truth telling looks like weaving and wielding a whip.

As the temple workers taxed the poor, Jesus’ blood boiled, sweat rolled down his cheeks, and a wild fury descended on holy ground. It wasn’t just about doves and coins and empty pockets; it was about scorched and empty souls. With a booming voice and dog-snarled lip we hear, “My Father’s house should be called a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves!” The whip popped the bullies ran for cover. You see, the same One who is gentle and lowly of heart is also the Great Bull in a China Shop. ”

Jesus

“The rusted metal sign outside Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church crookedly hangs from a rotten wooden frame. It slowly swings in the hot Alabama breeze. It used to read in bold red letters, “Jesus Saves.” But rain, weather, and time itself happened to the sign in such a way that the word “saves” gave way to smudging and smearing, until it finally disappeared like the Lord himself. Now it just reads “Jesus.” His name just hanging there on a Friday afternoon. Locals drive by the church every day and they know the sign is there but nobody pays much attention to it. The sign is ignored by most for no reason other than it is as common as their grass cutting shoes. Still, every once in a while, the name provokes a question out of a child in the back seat or a thought in the mind of a man thinking about leaving his wife and children.


One lazy summer afternoon Johnny and Mason had been wandering around in the country looking for cans and bottles to shoot with their B-B guns. As they happened upon the church, they decided to do a little target practice on the back of the sign. Something told them that taking direct aim and pinging the name of Jesus was crossing into the unforgivable spaces that only Beelzebub has dared tread. One after another the BBs stung the sign and nothing spectacular happened. The boys laughed, the crow squawked, and Jesus swung – dented, crooked, and quiet in the hot Alabama breeze outside the Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church.”

Showing Up (to Kindness)

“The point of your life and mine is to pay attention. Sex, square footage, and the Seahawks are graces but they are not the point. Showing up is the point. Paying attention is the point. Living is the point. Believe it or not, there are people who are truly alive in this world. You have to keep your eyes peeled to see them because they are not necessarily healthy and wealthy but they are wise. Their wisdom sparkles because they know that all anyone of us has is the present moment. Yesterday really is gone with the wind and tomorrow is no more guaranteed than today was. The wise know just how unfathomably precious life is and that the only way to steward this gift itself is to truly pay attention; to be present. The baby crying in the next room is hardly an inconvenience. The neighbor who leaves the television on all hours of the day is none of your business. The woman running the till is trying her best. Perhaps she has a headache, too? You were meant to appreciate the mist in Seattle this morning. You were meant to take a moment to breathe in stand-still-traffic, not bemoan the “dumb ass” in the orange vest fixing the pothole. You were meant to make eye contact with the man smoking outside of the pharmacy. To be present does as much for your neighbor as it does for you. That’s because if you really show up to the moment, kindness will meet you there.”

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Alxegesis

Ralph Martin: The New Eon

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
”

— 2 Cor. 5:16-21

“The lengthy, weighty passage in vv.16-21 has many facets but one master theme. In it Paul is setting down the Christian conviction that in the Christ event a new world has been born and a new age has supervened on world history. Phrases like “a new creation,” “reconciliation,” and “righteousness of God” are all virtual synonyms for this new eon which has radically affected both divine-human and all earthly relationships.”

— Ralph Martin, 2 Corinthians: WBC, vol. 40 (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1985), 158.

James Edwards: Serving... The Way It *Is*

Take a moment and slowly read James Edwards’ comment on Mark 10:43. Think about what Jesus is really saying about serving. The failure to serve is to “fall outside of an existing condition that corresponds to the kingdom of God.” Why? Because that is just “the way it is.”

“But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant”

— Mark 10:43

“...the best textual evidence suggests that it is the present of the verb “to be” (Gk. estin), not the future (Gk. estai), that is, “It is not the way among you,” as opposed to “It shall not be this way among you.” V.43a is thus not an admonition to behave in a certain way as much as a description of the way things actually are in the kingdom of God, and even among disciples of the kingdom. Thus, to fail in being a servant is not simply to fall short of an ideal condition but to stand outside of an existing condition that corresponds to the kingdom of God. ”

— James Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002), 325.

Karl Barth: Giving the Holy Spirit to Us

“Barth says that “the Holy Spirit … is God himself, in as so far as he is able, in an inconceivably real way, without being less God, to be present to the creature, and in virtue of this presence, to vouchsafe life to the creature.” ”

— Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of the Word (Edinburgh, UK: T&T Clark, 2010), 515.

St. Melito: Who Will Contradict Me?

“The Lord clothed himself with humanity, and with suffering on behalf of the suffering one, and bound on behalf of the one constrained, and judged on behalf of the one convicted, and buried on behalf of the one entombed, rose from the dead and cried out aloud: “Who takes issue with me? Let him stand before me. I will set free the condemned. I gave life to the dead. I will raise up the entombed. Who will contradict me? ”

— Melito of Sardis and Alistair Stewart-Sykes, On Pascha: With the Fragments of Melito and Other Material Related to the Quatrodecimans (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladamir’s Seminary Press, 2001), 65.

Ronald Fung: Letting Yourself Be Led by the Spirit

“The active leading of the Holy Spirit does not signify the believer’s being, so to speak, led by the nose willy-nilly; on the contrary he must let himself be led by the Spirit–that is, actively choose to stand on the side of the Spirit over against the flesh.”

— Ronald Fung, The Epistle to the Galatians: NICNT (Downers Grove, IL: Eerdmans, 1988), 251.

Kevin Vanhoozer: The Moral for Systematic Theology Must Include the Global South and East

“The moral for systematic theology is clear. No one interpretative community can mine all the treasures of the Word of God by itself. If biblical interpretation is indeed the soul of theology, then theologians had better attend to the global conversation. Reading Scripture with Christians from different parts of the world is invigorating; to be exact, it reinvigorates our tired concepts and categories … the most important contribution of voices from the global South and East has been rehabilitating the importance of interpreting Scripture with the goal of achieving practical wisdom: performing the text in new contexts, staging new parables of the kingdom of God wherever two or three are gathered in Christ’s name. ”

— Kevin Vanhoozer, “‘One Rule to Rule Them All?’ Theological Method in an Era of World Christianity” in Globalizing Theology: Belief and Practice in an Era of World Christianity, ed. Craig Ott and Harold A. Netland (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 122.

Leslie Newbign: The Church in Public

“The community that confesses Jesus is Lord has been, from the beginning, a movement launched into the public life of mankind. The Greco-Roman world in which the New Testament was written was full of societies offering to those who wished to join a way of personal salvation. There were several commonly used Greek words for such societies. At no time did the church use any of these names for itself … it used with almost total consistency the name ecclesia – the ecclesia theou, the assembly called by God … The Church could have escaped persecution by the Roman Empire if it had been content to be treated as a cultus privatus.”

— Leslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission (Downers Grove, IL: Eerdmans, 1995), 16.