Reaching the “Age of Death”.

So… yesterday I turned 33. My sister’s greetings to me over the phone were: -”congrats, you have reached the age of death!” to which I responded first -”what a warm and encouraging way to simply say ‘happy-birthday… but, thanks anyway’”. My second response was, -”you know by the way, that Jesus also raised at the age 33 don’t you?” She said, “-yes I do, but only after he descended into hell!”

I tend to read too much into things so I naturally thought about the implications of our unusual birthday conversation and, after much thinking I reached a conclusion. Here it is: I hope that this year will be evidenced by my death and resurrection. There’s an a soul inventory that I need to take. In reality, there are many things in me that still need to be put to death and many that need to be brought to life and, I expect no easy cruise through these processes. Scriptures speak clearly of the truth that dying hurts but so does new life (pregnancy and delivery).  There’s no joy depart from weeping, no renewal without “pangs”, no exaltation without humiliation because there’s no empty tomb without a bloody cross.

At the age of 33 I pray that God will help me to die so that in my resurrection I will be an instrument to help others to live through him that has both killed me and given me new life.

If you’re turning 33, I suggest you do the same.

More like a movement, less like an institution.

This week as I was preparing for Sunday’s sermon I recovered a great missiological book by David Bosch.  Bosch was a South African Dutch Reformed theologian that stood against the Apartheid when most of his denominational colleagues stood for it.

In his book  “Transforming Mission” he draws the distinction between a movement and an institution. He writes:

“There are essential differences between an institution and a movement, says N.H. Niebuhr (following Bergson): the one is conservative, the other is progressive; the one is more or less passive, yielding to influences from the outside, the other is active, influencing rather than being influenced; the one looks to the past, the other to the future (Neibuhr 1959:11f). In addition, we might add, that one is anxious, the other is prepared to take risks; the one guards boundaries, the other crosses them.” (p. 51)

and…

“Our main point of censure should therefore not be that the movement became an institution but that, when this happened, it also lost much of its verve. Its white-hot convictions, poured into the hearts of the first adherents, cooled down and became crystallized codes, solidified institutions, and petrified dogmas. The prophet became a priest of the establishment, charisma became office, and love became routine. The horizon was no longer the boundaries of the local parish. The impetuous missionary torrent of earlier years was tamed into a still-flowing rivulet and eventually into a stationary pond. It is this development that we have to deplore. Institution and movement may never be mutually exclusive categories; neither may church and mission.” (53)

In light of this, my personal prayer is that Crossbridge would function more like a movement and less like an institution. Now, you may ask: Is that even possible? I sure hope so.

How come they are not the ones asking the question?

It has got to be the third person in the last two weeks that has asked me about the existence of God in light of the tragedy in Haiti. The last words I heard before I walked out of that Starbucks were “How can a good god exist and allow these things to happen, a god like that has no place in this world”.  As I reflected upon what I judge to be an honest angry statement I was reminded of another episode just last week. It happened here at my own church during a presbytery meeting.

At that meeting a Haitian movement leader updated us of the situation in Port Au Prince in the aftermath of the 7.2 earthquake. At the occasion he said that the situation was much worse than what has been reported by the American TV networks.  Out of his own suffering he shared the fact that he had lost 10 of his pastors, all of their church buildings and many of their church members. He said that there was no food, scarcity of gas to transport whatever supplies they could gather from the DR or other immediate towns, tons of orphans roaming the streets and a lot of violence. But in the midst of all the destruction around them the church remained strong. He said that every single night sounds of prayers and songs are heard through out the desolated streets of the city. That in the midst of immense suffering people are turning to God more than they are turning to nations and to other human beings.

Interesting. Here we have one of the greatest catastrophes of history and then we have two kinds of people. Those who are mere spectators and those who are living in it. On one side you have those, like myself that can drive into a Stbx and pay $4 for a cup of coffee and then go home and watch what’s going on on TV and then you have those who are actually there. A fool like the one I encountered today who can afford to have a comfortable life asks the question that the homeless, orphan, hungry, mutilated is not asking on the other side. They usually never do. On this side of the tragedy people are using what happened to run away from God while victims are desperately running to God. To me if someone had the right to ask the question; it would be the Haitian people. Except, they are not.

I’ve heard it say that “atheism ends at the grave” and I guess that’s true for both types of people.

Existential Gratitude (thoughts for a new year)

As the 2009 page was flipped, I recap the content of the previous year. Every year I do that. I immerse myself in nostalgia for one or two days and always, I conclude in amazement that everything good and everything bad are fruits of God’s faithfulness to me. Providence never fails, to the point that I’m in love with the fact that I’m not deserving of the blessings and the trails that Jesus has brought my way. As one page is flipped, I conclude therefore that the content, the arguments, and the stories of the past chapter, made perfect sense.

What’s intriguing however, is that if I always reach this conclusion once a page is turned, why can’t I conclude the same thing before starting a new chapter? What I mean is this: Why can’t I always assume from the head start that the good and the bad will make sense? That God will always come through and that grace will always lavish my days?

If I were able to have this attitude I would live in existential gratitude (as opposed to what Sartre called “nausea”) because as Caio Fabio has said, “gratitude is the daughter of grace.”

To live in existential gratitude is to…

1. Look forward to the good while holding low expectations of their arrival. In other words, you always expect the blessings instead of always demanding they come. There’s a difference there. If the blessings come awesome! If they don’t, patient hope kicks in.
2. To stay positive through trials because you hold high expectations for their resolution. Remember, in advance you trust that God will come through and things will make sense. These moments will also be marked by patient hope.
3. Be allowed to savor every unique taste life brings your way. Whether they are bitter, sweet, spicy, or sour. Weather they are an appetizer, a main course, or a dessert.  It’s an attitude that allows you to celebrate your life, each life, each encounter, each pain, each caress, each love, each loss, each waste, each misperception, each mistake, each friend, each enemy, each birth, and, each funeral. There’s always a hope that every experience will be a metaphysical one. There’s a hope that everything will work out for good.

So, if it’s true that gratitude is the daughter of Grace then, it must be true that hope is its twin sister.

Pastor of Availibility

Last week I was able to hook up with an old friend of mine who happens to be a pastor as well. He’s not a senior pastor, a youth pastor, a ministry pastor, a worship pastor nor a, family’s pastor. He’s an “Availability Pastor”.  Have you heard of such thing? I hadn’t ’till then.  When I first heard him state his new title I had two feelings. One of disturbance and another one of compassion. Let me try to flesh my reactions out.

Disturbance – It’s quite disturbing to me at times that the Church of Jesus Christ has institutionalized to the point that ministers perform according to labels. If you’re a worship pastor you sing — can’t preach. If you’re a senior pastor, you preach and so why would you want to visit with someone who’s sick? It disturbed me that I’ve followed this flow and that the western American church has become so industrialized that ministry roles have been created according to an organizational system and a personal profile to the point of naming someone “Pastor of Availability”. I’ve never found these labels while reading the New Testament. Plus, what’s this guy supposed to do anyways?

Compassion – To me it sounded like they had created “the bench pastor position”. Now, I know my friend and I know the church he has worked for for many years. He has been instrumental not only in my spiritual formation but in the life of many godly men and women to this day. My wife included. Why would you put someone like him on the bench? He’s a strong player! Much stronger than some of the “starters” I know they have. That’s how I felt. For a minute I felt sorry for the guy and sorry for his church.

But then it dawned on me that if there was a title to define who he was and what all pastors are supposed to be, that was it! — Pastor of Availability. While in the New Testament you can’t find the titles we’ve created for pastors, you find that pastors were available to people and to whatever Jesus required of them at the time. If healing the sick was needed they were there, if preaching was required they were there, if counseling was required they were there. They ministered to children, to the youth, the elderly and to people in prison.They were not bound to a tittles except that one of availability. Which to me is one that communicates both humility and boldness. Humility because they existed to serve as Jesus served and boldness because no challenge was a challenge. I could never imagine Paul saying to Jesus: “-Lord, send John, he has the gift compassion. He’s our outreach pastor!” Nope. They did whatever came their way. They faced demons, incredulity, diseases, conflicts and, crisis whenever and wherever needed.

So… what at first was source of disturbance and compassion latter became a source of fascination and reflection. I started to ask myself: why am I not a pastor of availability as well?  I know from my own experience that the title I have received has many times handicapped me to truly be what Jesus wants me to be. I recall myself saying “I won’t see him. That’s not my job!” or “I don’t have time to sit with that couple, I have to sermonize”. I know that there’s always a risk of being distracted off of our focus/ responsibility  but is it possible that sometimes Jesus wants us to be available to meet random needs of people? And is it possible that we have hidden behind titles and have used them as an excuse to minister spontaneously? I’ll say yes. What about you?

“Who’s Christmas Line?”

My brother Marcus, who happens to minister with me at Crossbridge wrote this great blog post that fits the season. Since he doesn’t have a blog of his own I thought of posting it here.

“For you artists and all of you worshippers here at crossbridge church every week — you know, i was thinking… so many many times we really don’t soak in that which we say and sing in public worship every week — We ought to stir up and foster a culture that meditate on the value and depth of some timeless song-writing and lyrics so…

…I’ve curiously been meaning to get around doing this, I’ve read now through over some four hundred Christmas tunes — these are “lines” from songs/ hymns we usually bulldozer through every advent season only that its geniuses get lost in the familiar melodies, but when pondered on closely they sum up the gospel — words i’ve choked on recently while meditating on — stuff you gotta read a few times over to allow it to actually sink in deep — here at Crossbridge our desire for this season is that some of these will profoundly remind us of our need of why even God did what He did. We called it “christmas” but who’s line is it anyways? — pause, reflect.., let it encourage your worship this advent”.
___________________________________________

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.”
“In all our trials born to be our Friend!”
“He knows our need—to our weakness is no stranger.”
“Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His Name all oppression shall cease.”
- O Holy Night
___________________________________________

“Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,”
“Justice now revokes the sentence,
Mercy calls you; break your chains.”
- Angels From The Realms Of Glory
___________________________________________

“Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.”
“Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.”
“Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;”
“Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.”
- Hark The Herald, Angels Sing
__________________________________________

“There to bend the knee before
Him Whom Heaven and earth adore;
So may we with willing feet
Ever seek Thy mercy seat.”
“And, when earthly things are past,
Bring our ransomed souls at last
Where they need no star to guide,
Where no clouds Thy glory hide.”
- As With Gladness, Men Of Old
__________________________________________

“As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.”
- Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
__________________________________________

“That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.”
“Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.”
“Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.”
“Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.”
- O Come, O Come Immanuel
__________________________________________

“From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.”
“Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.”
“Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.”
“By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.”
- Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
_________________________________________

“Son of God, love’s pure light;
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,”
- Silent Night
_________________________________________

“Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,”
- What Child Is This?
________________________________________

“The virgin womb that burden gained
With virgin honor all unstained;
The banners there of virtue glow;
God in His temple dwells below”
“Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,
And darkness breathe a newer light,
Where endless faith shall shine serene,
And twilight never intervene.”
- Come Thou Redeemer Of The Earth
______________________________________
“That hath made Heaven
and earth of naught,
And with His blood
mankind hath bought.”
“If we in our time shall do well,
We shall be free from death and hell;”
- The First Noel
____________________________________

“Be Thou our Joy and Brightness,
our Cheer in pain and loss,
Our Sun in darkest terror,
the Glory round our cross,”
“O Lord, now let Thy servant
depart in peace, I pray,
Since I have seen my Savior
and here beheld His day.”
- Thou Light Of Gentile Nations
__________________________________

“He saith to the weary,
O come unto Me;
The poor and the lowly
His glory may see;
He comforts the mourners
and bids them rejoice.”
- Glad Tidings (Crosby)
__________________________________

“…let nothing you dismay, remember Christ our Savior was born..,
…To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.”
- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
__________________________________

“Bearing notes of perfect pardon,
Thro’ a Savior crucified.
“Good tidings of great joy
To all people do I bring,
Unto you is born a Savior,
Which is Christ the Lord and King.”
- The Gospel Bells
__________________________________

“How beautiful the mystery:
Th’eternal Word comes down
To live and love and die and rise,
To claim His victor’s crown.”
- How Beautiful The Mystery
__________________________________

“Now ye hear of endless bliss: Joy!
Joy! Jesus Christ was born for this!
He has opened the heavenly door,
and man is blest forevermore.
“Now ye need not fear the grave: Peace! Peace! Jesus Christ
was born to save!
Calls you one and calls you all,
to gain His everlasting hall.
- Good Christian Men Rejoice
__________________________________

“When came in flesh
the incarnate Word,
The heedless world slept on,”
“The awful pomp, and earth aghast
Shall tremble at the sign.”
“Thou art the sorrowing
sinner’s Friend,
The gracious and the true?”
“Dwell in our hearts, O Savior blest;
So shall Thine advent’s dawn
’Twixt us and Thee,
our bosom Guest,
Be but the veil withdrawn.”
- When Came In Flesh The Incarnate Word

by Marcus Assis

Preaching tensions

Yesterday I got a call from my friend Chris. He said: “Listen man, I’m going to be in your area do you wanna grab some lunch over the little french bistro off of 136?” Every so often we get together to support what each other is doing, bounce ideas off of each other and, ventilate what we are currently wrestling with.

Well, yesterday’s topic ended up being “preaching”. For a while I have been trying to figure out the complicated art of preaching. I’ve read books, listened to great communicators and have plagiarized a hand full of them (If you’re reading don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about). All of it because I want to be effective in what I have been called to do week in week out. Preaching is highly dependent on language and culture and because language and culture are alive — constantly changing, preaching is constantly changing. Trust me it’s a huge challenge to keep yourself up at the top of your game.

The biggest challenges for me (which I’ve shared with Chris that afternoon) have been the following.

1 – Tension between effectiveness and pragmatism. We live in a extremely pragmatic culture that has equaled good with what’s working. Or better, what’s gathering people.  I’ve heard it say “sheep go to where there’s food” and that’s fine but, we also have to realize that sheep are stupid animals as well. Just because thousands are going to hear pastor X each week that doesn’t mean that pastor X is being effective in bringing Gospel-change to their lives. I have to tell myself many times: “Don’t go for what’s gathering instead, go for what’s changing”.

2- Tension between who I am and who I like to hear. We all have preachers we love to listen and wish we could sound like. I have two favorite preachers. One is Caio Fabio from Brazil and the other is Tim Keller. I remember that when Caio was around in the the mid-’90’s every other guy in seminary wanted to be like him. They even emulated his tone of voice and his “carioca” accent. Nowadays what we have are a bunch of young guys wanting to sound like Keller. They structure their sermon like he does, use the same punch lines and even use the same NY Times illustrations while preaching in the mountains of North Carolina. I know I will always be influenced by who I study and listen but at some point, there ought to be a line that ought not to be crossed. The line that keeps me from being myself. Pulpits are not actor stages.

3- Tension between what I like to communicate and what needs to be communicated. I remember when I pastored my first church in the late 90’s. We had planted the church the inner-city of Recife and one day I invited one of my seminary buddies (the smartest guy in the class) to preach to my congregation. Let’s say he preached a very good sermon, for his ordination exam. In the slums of Recife the dude quoted whole paragraphs of Kierkegaard and Louis Berkhof. He liked those guys but frankly, the people in my church didn’t need them because they could care less about them. I often catch myself communicating things I’m in to at the moment not what people need.

4- Tension between the way I was taught to communicate and the way I need to communicate. I went to two reformed seminaries and at both places I learned the exact same to prepare and deliver a sermon. In one hand that’s good because it helps you to establish key parameters for building a sermon structure but one the other hand, it confines you to a box. Like I said, culture and language changes so structure needs to change. Innovation is the key to keep the word fresh. Think of Jesus and Paul for instance. They were so effective because they communicated not in the way they were trained to communicate but in a way that their audience would “get” the message of the Gospel.

These are the four that hit close to home for me. I’m sure there are others for you… feel free to comment.

A Story of Ingratitude

Here’s a story I shared in church today. I shared this story today because this is thanksgiving week. This story was shared to me first by mom as an attempt to get me to return a favor, a service or, a compliment. Something that when I was a child, I was really bad at. I have to tell you, it worked. It worked more than the sharp pinches she gave in my kidney section or the severe reprimands on the spot.

The story goes as follows.

There was once a boy born of a single mom who happened to be a very poor woman. She loved her son, he was her world, so she fed and dressed him to the best of her ability by working real hard as a family maid. She had him in the best schools and sacrificed tremendously to educate him all the way up through Law School.

On his graduation day she ironed her ragged dress expecting to walk her son down the isle as his matron of honor. To her surprise, her son had invited his preppy girl-friend instead. So instead of causing a scene she found a seat in the middle of the auditorium to watch the ceremony. During the ceremony she laughed and cried as scenes from all the different phases of her son’s life ran through her head like a movie.

At the end of the ceremony the short old lady squeezed her way through the circle of people that were congratulating the man who had graduated at the top of his class. His friends were there, his professors were there, the owners 0f the law firm he interned at were there; smiling, hugging, posing for pictures and shaking his hand… and, there was this little old lady standing behind him pulling the back of his robe fighting for his attention. At one point someone in the circle pointed to the lady to which he looked and said: “- Hi Maria!” As he dismissed her, he looked back to the crowd and said “-She’s my maid”.

A short piece on sports and spirituality

I’m a sports fan and for a while I’ve been wanting to write a short piece on it. Specially about where sports interacts and intersects with spirituality.

I’ve often found myself comparing what happens in my soul when I play a soccer match, read the sports section of an online paper and, watch one of my country-men fight an MMA match with what I experience in worship, preaching a sermon or reading my Bible.

There are some similarities. If there wasn’t Paul wouldn’t've compared his ministry focus with a race or a boxing match.

I don’t know about you but, every time I go to a stadium or an arena of any sort it’s very clear to me that there’s a spiritual experience taking place. Worship is evident in the chants, emotional reactions, community expressions and, the feasting. I could even through the offering element in there if you want me to.

It’s funny how people will criticize organized religion because of all of the above and yet still pay their yearly tithe to their teams of choice, shout the name of their deities till they bust all their vocal cords, hug and drink with strangers and, practice apologetics to prove the existence of their team/ group/ player’s superiority. In many ways there’s no difference between a hard-core sports fan and a pentecostal christian.

We all have a longing to belong, an urge to triumph and a need to escape the boredom of reality. Sports therefore, become a great outlet for these needs. From this standpoint entertainment is extremely important for life in society. The romans understood it well as their famous slogan of “bread and circus” revealed.

As every good thing given by the Father of Light sports were given to us so that we would enjoy and stimulate these soul cravings. Like sex and food, sports point us to a greater reality. A reality where we can solve our crisis of belonging, quench our thirst for everlasting victory and find true meaning in the midst of the repetitiveness of reality.

Savior, save me from the things I most want!

Every once in a while I get tweets from colleagues that read more or less like this “yesterday, x # of people got saved! Praise Jesus!”. While I do rejoice that people are committing their lives to Jesus (and BTW – I do believe in public conversions and altar calls) there’s always been a counter question in my head. What do these people want out of salvation? Or better, what do people in general, want out of salvation?

To me, it’s hard to think that what they really want is a more comfortable place after death. In fact, most people don’t like to think about their death (if they do they are either very sick, very old or very weird), much less where they go after that.  I’m convinced that people want salvation here and now. Most people when they think of salvation think about making their way to a stable ground. They are after someone that will lead them to emotional, financial, professional, romantic and, relational stability. They want a Jesus that will take them “there” and that, even if he does not give them the job or the lover that they want, at the very least he will make them happy.

In my 14 years (10 of them as an ordained presbyterian minister) of ministry, I’ve seen many people come forward and have baptized many others that did not remain in the faith too long after their “conversions” or “baptisms”. In the cases that I can remember they left Jesus either because they got too much or received too little of the things they’ve always wanted. With too much Jesus did too little, and with the too little Jesus did nothing at all. Fair disappointment. After all, heaven for most people is a state, a stage, a person or, an object and Jesus is a savior that serves as a facilitator to get these things.

In juxtaposition, the Gospel presents salvation as finding God himself — nothing else. As a matter of fact finding Jesus means losing everything else. He said so. Heaven is finding a stable place with and in God while experiencing vertigo in all other places, stages and life relationships.

I conclude therefore that I believe and I want salvation now but, only the one that will save me from the things I most want.