This week for instance I was studying Genesis 29 and it struck me the way that Jacob was deceived by his uncle-father-in-law-boss and, match Laban. Jacob worked 7 years so that he would have Laban’s youngest daughter Rachel. When the 7 year term was completed, Laban throws Jacob a wedding party and veils his eldest Leah and gives her instead. After being wasted and going into a tent with no electric light Jacob goes to bed in romance and wakes up with reality. “-Damn! I thought you were Rachel!” He probably added (as I heard a rabbinic scholar quoted) , “I called you Rachel in the dark and you didn’t say anything!” to which she probably responded: “Your dad called you in the dark and you didn’t say anything either. Did you?”.

It’s amazing the things we do to get the things we want. We think that all our hard work will finally pay off once we get to be in bed with it. Once we get to be one flesh with it. To our surprise when the day light creeps in through the breaches in the room the day after, we find out that we have been deceived — it was never Rachel. We acknowledge that the longing remains and our commitment of servitude to the real object of our desire has only intensified. We find out that 7 more years are need. And then 7 more… and then 7 more. We are always enslaved and therefore vulnerable to be manipulated by those like Laban who will not miss an opportunity to take advantage of our state.

There’s only one love that’s worth pursuing and devoting our whole lives to, he’s the only love that will assure us that he will be the same person you  will wake up to in the morning and, he’s the only one that will not demand of you for he was the one that gave all of himself to you. He’s a lover while all the others smell like lovers, in reality are pimps.

It wasn’t until recently that everything made sense to me.  The three days spent on accomplished salvation set the pace for salvation applied. Meaning, everything that Jesus went through in those three days to secure salvation for us should represent everything what we must go through in order to experience his salvation in us and for us. Here’s the pattern his passion sets for us. Suffer – die – rest – be glorified.

On Thursday the Gospels tell us that Jesus grasped the deep reality of sin and sacrifice which brought him to despair. He wept, and sweat, and bled over our sins and then confessed his desire to Father to abandon the job last minute. At that moment, Jesus was taking sin very seriously.  So should we, if we are to receive the salvation God makes available to us in Jesus. Those to whom Jesus has secured salvation, will weep, and bleed, and experience despair over their hopeless condition. And most importantly, will confess their sins and see in Jesus the only possibility of rescue and absolution.

On Friday Jesus was crucified. He ascended the tree of Calvary to become the substitution for our sins. On the cross the Father’s wrath brutally descended on the Son so that it would not descend on those to whom he was securing salvation for — those he would latter call sons and daughters. As sun went down and the Son gave up his Spirit, we were justified and now able to be adopted into the family of the Trinity. Those to whom Jesus has secured salvation are called to look at the Cross and see their death vicariously lived out (or should I say died out) by Jesus. More importantly, they are called to die to self and to the sin that demanded their death.

Now we arrive on “Sábado de Alleluia”. On Saturday there is silence in the text. In the soul there’s despair and in the land there’s rest. What an interesting tension huh? The disciples are observing the Shabbath while experiencing despair! Little did they know what “rabboni” had just done and was still doing for them. Jesus’ body in the grave should represent REST for us. It should confront us with the anxieties that enslave us and the temptation that we have to still work for our absolution before God. Saturday is Hallelujah because it is a reminder that we can and should rest in Jesus. It’s a reminder that there’s nothing we can do. That is how we grow and are sanctified in the salvation he has accomplished for us. We are sanctified as we rest of our works (good ones) and as we stop looking for rest in other saviors.

Finally Sunday. The grave is empty and the master is walking in the garden beautiful and splendorous.  He has defeated our last enemy and for the next 40 days he gives us a preview of what life in kingdom will look like when “the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters covers the seas”. It’s what enables us to make sense of all that he did for us and unless there was resurrection there would be no sense in believing and living out this salvation. His salvation is accomplished at last and it is applied with hope.

So, suffer, die, rest and hope, because your glorification is coming.

Happy “Sábado de Alleluia”.

I frankly think it’s a great question because it all goes back to our DNA as a church.

Here’s how we see this.

1. There’s a missional reason. If Crossbridge had a corporate approach to church (meaning, our main interest were to become a large mega-church), then we could not afford this new campus move. In fact, it would be stupid because it will take more money, more time and more volunteers to add a new campus  than to add a second service at our main Pinecrest campus. But, since this is not the case, I believe we’re on the right track.

From the beginning we have said that Crossbridge would be a missionally minded church. Our vision from the get go has been  to help Miami become a better city rather than become a great church (borrowed from our mother church here). As a church we have been active in promoting the arts (19|one), in partnering with serveral social justice 501c-3s and, have dreamed to take the Gospel to the unchurched areas of the city. And because this is true, we cannot afford not to add this new Brickell location. Brickell desperately needs the Gospel. Brickell is a vibrant area of Miami with a mix of businesses and residences with nearly 25000 residents and only 2 protestant churches with less than 100 people combined in them. The Lord has placed this area of the city in my heart and I have committed myself in the past year to go to Brickell once a week and pray over it. Recently, we were presented with an opportunity that we could not turn down because we discerned it was coming from God.

2. There’s a practical reason. Another reason besides the missional one is that; to add a campus costs more than to add a service but it’s way cheaper  than planting a church from scratch.

We are aware that this will be a great challenge for us. We will be stretched in every direction. Frankly, we don’t even know where God wants to take us in the end, but we are trusting him in this first step hoping that the best days of Brickell, Crossbridge and,  his Kingdom in Miami are still to come.

Hope to see you there Sunday night. If not, pray hard for us.

I have seen God in them and through them. In them and through them I have smelled God’s fragrance, tasted God’s sweetness, heard God’s voice and, seen God’s beauty. It was my deceased grand-mother; it is my mother, my wife and my daughters that have profoundly taught me about many aspects of God’s being and that have helped me to love as God loves. Mainly, by the unconditional way I have been loved.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?