Monday, September 24, 2012

306 - Reporting the Good News

Spirituality Column #306
September 25, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

Reporting the Good News
By Bob Walters
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

News stories typically use an informational structure known as “the inverted pyramid.”

It refers to the way a reporter prioritizes, organizes, and presents information.  Visualize an upside-down triangle (an “inverted pyramid”), with the wide base at the top and the smaller point at the bottom.  News is written to tell us the most important information first, in the lead – the “wide” part – of the imaginary pyramid.  Less important information comes later in the pyramid’s narrower, descending part.  Obviously it’s important not to lose “the point” in the process.

The inverted pyramid does a couple of things.

First, it quickly relays the most important information in case one reads only the first part of a news story.  Second, it makes the story easy to shorten if space is tight.  Rather than requiring a time-consuming rewrite, the story is simply cut from the bottom until it fits.  The most important stuff is already up top.

I’m glad the Gospel writers of the Bible – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – didn’t cut off the end of the story as they revealed the truth of Jesus’ ministry.  That last part in each of the Gospels about the death and resurrection of Christ isn’t exactly extraneous information.  But as I was reminded listening to a recent sermon on the Gospel of Mark, it’s really important that we pay close attention to the first things the Gospel reports – not just the spectacular last things – of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

The lead of the “Good News” of the four Gospels, the first thing Jesus did when entering into his relatively brief but world-changing, life-restoring, and soul-saving ministry was to be baptized by his cousin John the Baptist (Mark 1:9). Jesus’ first message? “Repent and believe” (Mark 1:15).  His first ministry invitation / command?  Follow me” (Mark 1:17). 

Too often, Christians jump straight to the gory and glory parts of faith: crucifixion, dissecting our sin, being forgiven, rebirth, expecting life ever after, and then saying to Jesus, “Here’s what I want You to do for me…”  When that happens we’ve buried the lead, lost the joy, missed the story … missed the point.

The first information of the “Good News” is that we are to be baptized into Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit; to repent – recognize, apologize, and dry our eyes – of our sins before Jesus Christ; to believe in Jesus Christ; and to follow Jesus Christ.

Be baptized, repent, believe, follow.

Now that is the lead to the ultimate Good News story. That is the lead of Christ as we write our own story as Christians.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thanks E91 pastor Rick Grover for the inspiration and sermon on Mark.
Monday, September 17, 2012

305 - What We Are Created To Be

Spirituality Column #305
September 18, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

What We Are Created To Be
By Bob Walters
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

When I was 5 or so, I wanted to be an ambulance driver.  It wasn’t a better or worse answer than fireman or soldier or brain surgeon or fry cook.  I just wanted to be an ambulance driver.

It’s always cute to ask little kids “what they want to be.”  And more than a few of us quinquagenarians have worked through a career or two and still joke about “what we want to be when we grow up.”  At that level, it’s sort of a personal commentary or maybe a reflection of life choices.  But whether it’s asked of a 5 year old or a 50 year old, “What do you want to be?” is a docile question driven more by cuteness or wryness than expectation of commitment to a vocation.

How much different it is to ask “What were you created to be?”  Answering that question requires some semblance of mature self-awareness.  Raised to the next level, let’s ask “What were you Created to be?” with a capital “C” on “Creator.”  Now it’s not just about us.  To answer that question one must stare straight back at God.

What did God Create us to be?

The only example in history of what God Himself Created any of us to truly be is the example of Jesus Christ.  God is perfect, created mankind perfectly, and wants us to be perfect.  But the one thing we all know is that we are not perfect.  And why is that?  Because God was wrong?  God is weak?  God lied?  God doesn’t care?

No. God’s perfect plan for mankind – which was to create us in His image, to have us freely worship Him, and to have us share in His eternal divine love – took a big-time Fall in the Garden of Eden when Satan used man’s free will to question and mock God’s authority.  Satan tricks us into thinking we were created for our own benefit.  It’s the world’s oldest trick and mankind, imperfectly, keeps falling for it.

What we have in Jesus is the ultimate human role model.  Jesus would not, could not, be suckered into Satan’s temptations (Matthew 4:1-11).  Yes, Jesus is fully and perfectly God, but He is also fully and perfectly human.  Jesus’ humanity could resist Satan because He had been baptized into the Spirit and answered Satan with scripture. That’s something we can emulate; that’s the humanity we should pursue.

Satan wants us to look at the world and worship what we want to be.  God wants us to look at Jesus Christ and see who we were created to be.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) never actually drove an ambulance.  Maybe someday…
Monday, September 10, 2012

304 - Growing Up in Our Faith

Spirituality Column #304
September 11, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

Growing Up in Our Faith
By Bob Walters
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

A Sunday school crowded with children is a sure sign of a healthy church.
 
If the kids are there, likely their parents are there.  And if the whole family is there, the experience of Jesus goes home where Christian faith can blossom as Christian family life to be shared with relatives, neighbors and friends.
 
That’s the rosy scenario, I realize.  Too often, much of the Jesus experience is lost on the ride home from church.  But seeing children in church is nonetheless encouraging.  There are plenty of places in the Bible – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – where Jesus tells us that it is the children who are “the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.”  Children are a big deal to Jesus.
 
But skip ahead to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, where in his dissertation on divine love it is clear one must “put away childish things” if one is to truly mature as a Christian.  The Bible clearly tells us to both “be as a child” and to “put away childish things.”  We are to go from spiritual “milk” as a child to spiritual “meat” as we mature.  On the one hand, we are to be as innocent as doves; and on the other, as shrewd as snakes (Matthew 10:16).  What gives?  Are we supposed to grow up, or not?
 
We most definitely are.  The question is: Do we?
 
Huntington University church history professor Tom Bergler surveys what he considers to be the arrested development of our modern American faith in his thoughtful new book, The Juvenalization of American Christianity.  It’s a scholarly piece of sociology, not a Bible study.  Bergler (BERJ-ler) tracks the last century or so of American Christianity and observes that we are largely stuck in an “adolescent faith.”
 
Adolescent faith is when Christians put “self-development, my problems, and my needs” as the center of Christian faith.  Bergler notes that a mature Christian sees his or her faith as a way to partner in the mission of the kingdom; of evangelizing and serving others.  It means understanding that “maturity” doesn’t mean “perfect,” it means loving God, loving others, being faithful, and seeking first to glorify God.
 
Bergler tracks the development of youth ministries from the 1920s, through the Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and the turbulent 1960s.  In Protestant, Catholic, and Black churches, youth ministers met teenagers where they were: and they were adolescents.  Hence, the focus became the emotional “me” side of faith and not on a deep commitment to God.  That often carries into today’s adult church.
 
Bergler’s point?  All God’s children should have a chance to grow up.
 
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) thanks Dr. Paul Blowers for the tip on the book.
Sunday, September 2, 2012

303 - What Does God Need Me For?

Spirituality Column #303
September 4, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

What Does God Need Me For?
By Bob Walters
Author of (click) Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Not everyone organizes his or her life around the basic assumption that a relational God who really exists created all things.

But a lot of us do.

Even folks who back away from church because it seems intrusive or unsatisfying, dismiss Christians because too many of us seem like hypocrites, idolize sports teams and pop culture figures rather than Jesus Christ, and prioritize money, family, good vibrations and the good life ahead of repentant faith – even them; many of them – will still reflexively, instinctively, call on capital-G God for blessings and help.

They may invoke God, blame God, question God, praise God, make requests of God and maybe on occasion even pray to God.  They have a gut assumption that He’s there even though they don’t understand or buy into the religion and church thing.  As an example, how many people (and I used to be one of them) have you heard say some variation of, “I believe in God, I just don’t believe in religion”?  Our witness needs work.

I think most folks “get” God’s existence and honestly hope God is really there (wherever “there” is).  It is the work of evangelism to share, explain, and strengthen mankind’s confidence that God really is there, that divine love in the person of Jesus Christ really is the central doctrine of the entire Christian faith, and that Christ came for all mankind to put us right with God (John 3:16).  Amen.

Of course, God is there.

But for those who at a basic level “connect” to the fact that God is there and loves us, it is another step up to say “I love God” and another step after that to say “I need God.”  But to truly trust God, it is logical to ask:  What does God need me for?

Surprisingly and simply enough, the answer is: To praise Him and love Him.

Here is how it works.  And it’s not a transaction; it’s grace.

The purpose of all God’s creation is to glorify Him.  Because we are created in God’s own image (Genesis 1:26-27), we are created to be in relationship with God, to love Him, to praise Him, and in that love and praise, to reflect His glory.  Jesus Christ is the bearer (“radiance”) of God’s glory (Hebrews 1:3), and the Holy Spirit teaches us to recognize God’s glory (1 Corinthians 2:6-16).

As sinful mankind in a fallen world, coached and cheered on by Satan, we are inclined to glorify ourselves, love ourselves, praise ourselves, and try to be all we need unto ourselves.  Just understand one thing:

God doesn’t need that.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) first attended church as an adult 11 years ago this weekend, on Sept. 2, 2001.  It just so happened it was the 50th anniversary of Russ Blowers’ ministry at East 91st Street Christian Church.  Bob’s book, “Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary” is dedicated to Russ.

 

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