{"id":1084,"date":"2011-02-06T22:15:47","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T05:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/?p=1084"},"modified":"2011-03-06T22:20:35","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T05:20:35","slug":"pastors-pen-for-february-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/?p=1084","title":{"rendered":"Pastor’s Pen for February 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge:<\/em><\/address>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers.<\/em><\/address>\n
And don\u2019t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy.<\/em><\/address>\n
Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. <\/em><\/address>\n
Tell them that the kingdom is here.\u00a0 Bring health to the sick.\u00a0 Raise the dead. <\/em><\/address>\n
Touch the untouchables.\u00a0 Kick out the demons.<\/em><\/address>\n
You have been treated generously, so live generously.\u201d<\/em> <\/address>\n
\u2013 Matthew 10:5-8, The Message<\/em><\/address>\n
<\/address>\n
Beloved of God,<\/span><\/address>\n

All that remains is the doing.<\/strong> We\u2019ve said our piece.\u00a0 Expressed our opinions. Given voice to our anxieties.\u00a0 Articulated our principles and perspectives. Our annual meeting in January had more passionate speech than any other in the six years of my tenure at Peace.\u00a0 This is a good thing. We muddled through together, and I\u2019m grateful for that. I\u2019ve always been nervous at the lack of conversation about budgets at previous meetings.\u00a0 Silence in the face of the choices and priorities embodied in a budget is not a good thing.<\/p>\n

Well\u2026no worries this time around! <\/em><\/address>\n

It can be a sign of good health when members of a community define their positions\u2014especially when the positions aren\u2019t universally\u00a0 shared\u2014and at the same time stay connected.\u00a0 Exercising these \u201cmuscles\u201d in this \u201cbody of Christ\u201d can be a stretching experience.\u00a0\u00a0 It may leave us feeling a bit sore, but in the end it will make us stronger as long as we take care of each other during the process.\u00a0 When we exercise our gifts to build up the body (rather than tearing it down), the whole body benefits; it helps to build our collective \u201cimmune system\u201d and to strengthen us against the kind of threats that can weaken or even destroy communities.\u00a0 So we keep on growing\u2026we keep on learning\u2026we build our resilience\u2026we grow more capacity for the tasks ahead.<\/p>\n

The images we saw on the screen at our meeting, the numbers on paper, the words on the pages of our annual reports, the names of the newly elected to council and task force\u2014all these count, all these matter.\u00a0 But they are\u2014all of them\u2014PRELUDE<\/span>.\u00a0 Now that the meeting is over, the show, the liturgy, the dance (abun-dance?), the mission commences. All that remains is the doing; all that remains is putting it into practice<\/strong>\u2014putting our talent and energy where our heart is, and our money where our mouth is; doing \u201cGod\u2019s work\u201d with \u201cour hands;\u201d practicing what we preach.\u00a0 Are you ready for that?!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When Jesus sent his apprentices off on their first mission trip they were still wet-behind-the-ears learners.\u00a0 They had mastered nothing.\u00a0 In fact, much of what he\u2019d taught them they failed to understand.\u00a0 But Jesus didn\u2019t hold them back for more course work; he didn\u2019t keep them in school until a more appropriate time.\u00a0 No\u2014he sent them out, knowing that it was in the doing<\/span><\/em> that they would learn the most about themselves, their gifts and limitations, the world\u2019s hunger for wholeness, and the unbelievable power that belongs to all who are companioned by the Spirit of God.\u00a0 Jesus set basic boundaries around where his apprentices should go and what they should be about, and then he sent them off.\u00a0 That\u2019s where we are.\u00a0 All that remains (all!) is the doing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In her provocative book, Jesus Freak<\/span><\/strong>, Sara Miles asks, \u201cwhat would it mean to live as if you\u2014and everyone around you\u2014were<\/em> Jesus, and filled with his power?\u00a0 To just take his teachings literally, go out the front door of your home, and act on them?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cJesus,\u201d she writes, \u201cdoes not, anywhere in the Gospels, spend too much time calling his people to have feelings, or ideas, or opinions.\u00a0 He calls us to act: hear these words of mine, and act on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time to get crackin\u2019.<\/p>\n

Pastor Erik<\/p>\n

Sara Miles, <\/span>Jesus Freak.<\/span><\/em> (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010) pp. ix, xiv<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge: \u201cDon\u2019t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don\u2019t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here.\u00a0 Bring health to the sick.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-newsletter","category-pastors-pen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1084"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1089,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions\/1089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}