On Sunday, we remember Palm Sunday, Jesus' triumphant arrival on donkey-back into Jerusalem where He was praised and glorified by huge crowds of people. Then, next Friday we'll remember Good Friday where the same crowds called for Jesus' crucifixion.

Here's what happened between those days:

He cleared the Temple.
He healed the blind and the lame.
Children praised Him as Messiah.
He withered up an unfruitful fig tree.
He taught in the Temple.
He challenged the religious leaders.
He kept challenging them.
He really poked at them and got under their skin.
I mean, He really called them out.
The religious leaders plotted to kill Him and convinced the crowd that they were right.

There's more to it, but you get the gist. So the religious leaders were clearly threatened and acted accordingly. The crowds on the other hand, what was their excuse? Don Williams shed some light on this for me when he preached from Mark 10:

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."

"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

So first the crowd tells Bartimaues that he's not important enough for Jesus, and then when Jesus calls for him, they rebuke him for... I don't know, not jumping up fast enough, or still wailing out for Jesus. This crowd is...

Kind of like our crowd.

Our society does this too, right? It blows with the wind, following whatever is attractive and convenient.

This Palm Sunday, I want to take time to just reflect on why I so often get caught up in where the wind is blowing the crowd. Why I really want the crowd to like me, why the thought of not being in the in crowd is scary to me. I was never in the in crowd growing up, but come college and now, after college, I've tasted the in crowd, and it's hard to go back voluntarily. But Jesus is more important to me and Jesus who I claim I've turned my life over to.

A little less crowd and a little more Jesus would be good for me, not to mention the people I influence and pray for.

Download Don's heart-grabbing sermon on Mark 10 about Bartimaeus here.

Labels: Jesus

"I'm just a guy who Jesus loves." - Mike Breaux, Willow Creek

What if it were as simple as that? How would our everyday troubles, our big picture goals, our trials and tribulations, joys and sorrows be informed and shaped by finding our identity there and there alone?

If at the center of everything was this knowledge that the core of our identity was as guys and girls that Jesus loved, it would change everything. Being a disciple, becoming a disciple, all of it would be different. Evangelism would be fun. Worship would be sweeter than ever. Can you imagine singing your guts out to your creator along with a choir of voices who all understood that their whole life begins each morning with a tight grasp on being loved by Jesus?

We'd have perspective. We'd have context. When hard stuff came, we'd start here and move from there. Even life's toughest moments could be met with a profoundly simple clarity. Praying for people, turning from sin, leading, following, work, being in community... all of the longing, the fears, those crushing moments that make you start to question everything, imagine if all of those moments simply started with a gentle reminder that we're just people that Jesus loves. Everything else is secondary to that.

There's the sum total of my Lenten reflections. Everything else that I thought I needed to think about lead there. And from there I can work back out with a different understanding of what it means.

Easter has implications for everyone, whether they've chosen to let Jesus into their deep places or not. Jesus died for everyone, and if He died for everyone because He loved us... that means He loves everyone.

Labels: Jesus

A new drug is being introduced to fight obesity in our pets.

Obesity.

In pets.

Growing up, I had two schnauzers that I loved dearly, Maynard and Bernie (Maynard after jazz trumpeter and frequent aural stratosphere visitor Maynard Ferguson, and Bernie as a combination of Bert and Ernie, of Sesame Street of course). Now, my parents made the decisions about the dogs when it came to medicine, but if it were up to me I can't necessarily say outright that I would be unwilling to spend a ton of money keeping my dog alive for years. As fellow dog lovers will understand, they were close friends.

But when I hear about all the medications being prescribed to dogs and cats and the rest, including anti-depressants, I fear that we've taken that phrase "man's best friend" a bit too literally. And in light of the dog bakeries ("Barkeries," I'm told they're called), and the fact that the store for pets in the little shopping district near our house was packed on Saturday, I find myself with a question that I'd just like to ask out loud.

Is this trend a reflection of our society's affluence or our increasing isolation?

Treating your pets like family isn't a new concept. This is simply another example of the market filling a perceived need. But in an age where 25% of Americans have no confidant, I think it's worth noting that people want and are capable of deep, loving relationships. Maybe we've just fast-food-ed our way to having a dog actually be our closest friend. And regardless of your love for dogs, we must all admit that a dog isn't a substitute for real human intimacy and relationship.

Of course, the flipside is that we're one step closer to America's Next Top Dog Model. I'm not sure which topic is more urgent.

[Note: Photo is of neither Maynard nor Bernie, but he does make a compelling case for spending a ton of money on your pets.]

Labels: Favorites, Jesus

Why are there thousands of blogs?
Why of those thousands of blogs do most of them consist of a recap of the author's life?
What need are blogs filling in people?

Celebrities who our society worships go through great trouble to keep their life private. Does hanging your life out for all to see give people a sense of being a celebrity?

The authors of blogs get to choose what information they share about their lives. Are we preempting others asking hard questions by controlling the direction of the conversation?

Online communities such as MySpace and Facebook connect you to hundreds or thousands of people just like you. So that you can exchange links and tally the number of people who want to know you. Is this our substitute for real community? What about the online gaming communities like World of Warcraft? Is it a place to play a game or a substitute for real community?

I spend lots of time on this blog recommending music. Am I just hoping that my opinion matters to someone?

I use it as a forum to talk about the things God is talking to me about and visa versa... but how much of it comes up in my real live friendships? Even something that seems noble to me - becoming a better writer and communicator, sharing what God is teaching me in hopes that it will help someone - is it actually just scratching an itch to matter? Assuming that said itch is God-give, is this blog satisfying that itch?

I look at the world around me and I see lots of alcohol and not a lot of meaningful conversations or memories you'll cherish when you're older. I see lots of casual sex but few committed relationships that challenge each other to grow and really know each other.

I can't decide if technology is enabling people to be a part of a global community, blogs helping people to be vulnerable in life-giving ways (and giving introverts a voice), or if we're just nursing a sea of surface-level friendships and taking an easy alternative to something hard like being vulnerable and real in the name of getting the world off our backs.

Is the Web 2.0 the community God had in mind?

Labels: Favorites, Jesus

It was rainy outside, it was cold inside and the room was a little dark. Nevertheless, it was a night filled with warmth, light and beauty. Rob made his last stop on his speaking tour to support the release of his new book, Sex God, here in Chicago at a little old school moviehouse called the Portage Theater, complete with working organ and overpriced popcorn. At the beginning of the Q&A session, Rob made it known that he didn't particularly want to talk about the book ("I don't want to talk about it, I wrote it" - a joke lost on most of the crowd). So instead, we had an hour-long 200+ person coffee date. The audience picked his brain and he poked at our hearts. The questions were a mix of theology (predestination, evangelism, making disciples of all nations, homosexuality, even tongues - all of which were met with challenging, often surprising and always genuine and heartfelt answers - and questions about how our church communities can be more like Mars Hill.

Here were some of the notes I took, verbatim:

Baptisms = Mikvah (sp?) - Pools of water on the mountain by the Temple. God is in Jerusalem. Ritual cleansing from Leviticus. But John the Baptist is baptising in the river way out in the sticks.

Church is a gift to the city - measure of a Church... if it left, would the city protest?

We are putting flesh on truth - truth incarnate.

We are to be a eucharist for others - bodies broken, blood poured out for each other. It's why you may be drained after serving, even though you're doing something life-giving - your body is being broken. You are being a eucharist for others.

Godly Man - Relationship with his creator. Centers his life on grace and love. I am a sacred creation, created to do something unique to help God restore the earth.

Tongues - Cessationalists - "There was a party and then God came out and said 'Alright, everyone out of the pool'". Dispensationalists - that was for then. It's not good to put boundaries on the divine. Seen too many things with his own eyes. Other extreme - if you don't speak in tongues, you're not a Christian... "Do you speak in tongues?"- creates a hierarchy, first and second class Christians. Also not good.

Live and move in the world in a way that people see love and hope. Your life is different. People will want to be around you.

There's lots more but I'm going to save some of it for upcoming posts.

The evening was capped with the viewing of a new Nooma video, "You", and he stuck around afterwards to sign books and shake hands. I don't usually get starstruck, but this was as close as I've ever been to that. Here's a guy I've listened to every week for almost three years, and including the archives, a person whose given me two books, four years worth of sermons (which iTunes tells me occupy 4.1 days worth of listening), videos and other assorted experiences. He is a person who has literally changed my life after every sermon. You know the icebreaker question - if you could have dinner with any person living or dead (except Jesus, because that makes for a boring question), who would it be? My answer would be Rob Bell. So despite recognizing that he's a person just like you and me, and that the last thing he wants to be is a celebrity, I was still surprisingly nervous to meet him. We shared a particularly meaningful exchange with (ask me about it if you want to know more) then my friend and I went to a local burger joint to unpack everything we learned and began to work through what it meant for our life.

More of his answers will trickle into the coming week's posts, but if you have specific questions, I can try to remember how he answered. Meet me in the comments.

Labels: Jesus