The Head Coach You Can't Subsitute (Commandments 1 & 2)

Then God spoke all these words: I AM the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the arth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.

  

If I randomly pulled 22 of you up here and said, let’s play the game. Ready go. What would you do?  Well, some of you would probably make up your own rules and start playing. Others of you would be wondering: What’s the game? How do you play? How do you win? How do you score? What can you do? What can you not do?  What’s the objective of the game?  What’s the strategy of the game? You’d be asking for the rules.  We need rules. 

We believe a lot of things about rules.  Sometimes we like rules, they give us structure and know what to do.  Rules help us distinguish between right and wrong.  Rules help us know who’s in and who’s out.  Rules help us navigate all kinds of things. They help us navigate our computers, our cars, the road, our work, our appliances and our relationships.  Often the “rules” are unspoken and even unnoticed until someone breaks a rule, or we go somewhere and the rules are different.  You don’t use the rules of soccer while playing football, or the rules of football when you’re playing baseball.  We may not often claim it, but we like rules.  We’re at least quick to cry “foul” when someone breaks a rule.  Anyone who’s watched a football game with a “Real” fan knows what I mean.  “Off-sides! Off-sides! Come on ref! Get some glasses!” or “That’s holding.  Did you see that?!  Holding!” The rules matter to us, mostly when they’re broken or when we suffer injustice at the hands of another.  We don’t always mind so much when we’re the ones breaking the rules. 

Here’s the thing, if you’re playing the game, it’s in everyone’s interest to play by the rules. Because if you all play by the rules and you play well, then what’s supposed to happen, happens. 

Before we understand God’s rules, we have to understand why we have them  in the first place.  Some of us feel like the Commandments are ancient and outdated. Some of us feel like only some of them are worthy of being followed. Some of us feel like they seriously impinge on our fun. So what’s the point of God’s rules anyway? 

The point of the 10 commandments is to nurture our relationships with God and with each other.  From Genesis 3, the story of Adam and Eve and the snake, we learn about our inclination to disobedience and the ways our sins breaks trust in our relationship with God and with each other.  The story of “The Fall” is to show us the nature of human sinfulness.  The story of Scripture and particularly the 10 commandments are about how God tries to help us restore those relationships. It matters to God whether or not we have a relationship with God, and it matters to God that we have good relationships with each other.  So, in starting fresh with the Israelites, after freeing them from Egypt, God sets out the rules of the game, so to speak. The first 4 commandments are the things we can do to foster a healthy, loving and trusting relationship with God and the last 6 are about the things we can do to foster a loving, trusting, healthy relationship with the people in our lives.  Simply stated, God wants good things for us, and God knows we need rules to know how to attain those good things. 

But in hearing the rules, some of us have a big hang up.  All the rules tell us are the things we can’t do.  Don’t do this and don’t do that.  Don’t have any other God’s before me. Don’t use my name in vain. Don’t murder. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Don’t covet. Don’t. Don’t. Don’t.  It can be hard to imagine that the commandments are about what God DOES want for us when all we hear is what God DOESN’T want us to do.  So we’re going to try and see, and hear, and understand the commandments for what God DOES want for us and from us. 

Commandment #1 say: thou shalt have no other gods before me.  Said another way, “God shall have all of you.”  Why?  Because God wants your complete buy in. God wants you to show up and participate and give the best of what you have.  God doesn’t want your left-overs. God doesn’t want to be your last thought. God wants what’s first.  Now, that might sound greedy on God’s part, but think about it. God knows you. God knows your talents, your abilities, your fears, your worries, and your failures. God knows what you are capable of before you do. AND God wants what’s best for you.  And when you show up and give God the best of who you are and what you have to offer, then God has the opportunity to help you live into that potential….the one you were created for, the one you are called to, the one God imagined for you.  Who better to help you become your best, than the one who made you?!

There are a lot of coaches out there. A lot of people who are happy to tell you what to do and who to be.  They have techniques. They have strategy. They have philosophy. Many of them even “get” it. But none of them will know you like God does. None of them will see your full potential like God does.  They may be good coaches, but they only have specialties.  One might be special teams. One might be offense. One might be defense. One might be focused on just your position.  But none of them are THE coach.  None of them are God. And while they might play the game well, or coach the game well. No one will know and understand the game quite like the one who created it and has spent His entire existence coaching it.  If you want to play well, you go to the experts.  If you want to throw like Troy Aikman or Payton Manning, then you go to the best quarter back coach. If you want to catch like Michael Irvin, Jerry Rice, or Randy Moss, then you go to the receivers coach.  You don’t ask the line coach to teach you to be the best quarterback. That’s not his job.  And if you want BIG picture, for the overall game, not just for one game, or one season, but for a lifetime, then you go to the best of the best, you go to the top coach. So, if it’s not just the game of football, but it’s life, then you go to THE life coach…the one who sees the big picture, who understands all the ins and outs of life, then you go to God.  To put it in sports terms, the first commandment is God saying, I should be your head coach, and your general manager. I should be the one you go to when you need to understand what’s going on, or what you should do.  Choose me.  Let God be your coach, first, last, and always, you won’t ever find anyone better. 

Commandment #2: “You must not make for yourselves an idol that looks like anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the water below the land. ⁵ You must not worship or serve any idol, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” Said another way, “You should enjoy the majesty of God.” 

Admittedly, most of us don’t worship or create idols…not physical ones anyway. So this commandment often becomes one of those that feels incredibly outdated and irrelevant.  But it’s about more than the rule; it’s about more than physical idols that stand in the place of God. Instead, the second commandment is about allowing for the mystery and awesomeness of God.  When we create idols, we set parameters for God. If we create a statue of God, in whatever form, then we are saying, that’s who God is….whatever is captured in that statue.  And maybe God is some of what’s captured in that statue, but ultimately, no statue, no figure, no image, could fully encapsulate who God is.  Even if we think about it in terms of words, titles, and characteristics, we’ll still fall short.  Say we say God is compassionate. Say we label God that way.  That’s the idol. Compassionate.  It’s great to be compassionate, but that doesn’t tell us anything about God as majestic, or just, or jealous, or merciful.  Idols set limits on God.  They box God in. And God is so much more than limitations.  God is beyond our imagination. God is greater than any word, or image, or combination of them could ever encompass. 

Think about it this way.  If what you want in a quarter-back is 80% accuracy and you have that, and that’s what you highlight and that’s what you focus on, that becomes the idol. 80% accuracy becomes the characteristic that trumps all others.  But say your quarterback has a bad attitude, what do you do?  You look for a new quarterback with 80% accuracy, and maybe a good attitude.  So you find that one, and you’re satisfied as long as he has 80% accuracy and a good attitude. But say he’s injured, what do you do?  Go look for another one.  Maybe you want 80% accuracy, good attitude, team player, and a leader.  You can make the list as long as you want, but ultimately, we all know that every player can be replaced.  But God is bigger than a list of characteristics.  And no one can replace God.

When we limit God to just one or two, or even 5 or 10 things, and don’t see how much greater God is, then it can be easy to allow for replacements. If we say, God is compassionate and that becomes our idol. That becomes the only way we want to see or understand God, not only have we blocked out all of the other things God is, but, we’ve made compassion the greatest thing. If God is compassionate, then compassion is the most important thing, and anyone who is compassionate, could become our coach.  If we allow for God to be bigger, maybe adding in God as just and majestic, then we might eventually look for someone or something that is also compassionate, just, and majestic, to stand in place of God when we’re busy, or distracted, or mad at God.  While we can acknowledge that no one could BE God, we could be comfortable finding the one who is compassionate, just, and majestic.  But if we add in that God is comforter, teacher, friend, and peace-giver, the bill is harder to fill.  And if we add to that Savior, Redeemer, companion, creator, immanent and transcendent, then we know, forever and always, that there are no substitutes.  No one can take God’s place, because God is above all others and different from others. God cannot be simplified. God cannot be replaced.

To appreciate the awesomeness and majesty of God is to recognize that God, as a whole, is beyond our full comprehension and cannot be replaced by any other. We understand parts of God through Scripture, and more of God through Christ, and finally through the Holy Spirit.  But we are still limited.  We won’t quite get it all.  That’s the mystery of God.  And that’s why idols fall short. No idol can capture the fullness of God.  And no substitute could replace God. 

Intro to 1st and 10 series

Worship Focus: Most of us know the commandments exist, and most of us can quote some of them.  Though, often, if asked, people confuse the commandments with the Golden Rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” or the “greatest commandment” Jesus said of “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Those are relevant, and related, but they aren’t the commandments.  Over the next 5 weeks, we will be learning about and studying the commandments, not just because it’s good to know them, but because they are the foundation of the Old and New Testaments.  I know, most of us wouldn’t rank “rules” as the most important part of the Bible. But the 10 commandments aren’t really about rules.  They are so much more than that.  The 10 commandments express God’s heart and desires for our life and relationships, both with God and with others.  To understand God, we have to know more than the rules, we have to know why the rules exist in the first place.  What’s the point of the commandments and what difference does it make if we keep them? 

Reboot: Ctrl+Alt+del

Lord, help me to focus, hear your truth, and write a message that allows people to encounter you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

John 5

Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a special feast.  In Jerusalem, there is a pool with 5 covered porches, which is called Bethesda in the Hebrew language. This pool is near the Sheep Gate.  Many sick people were lying on the porches beside the pool. Some were blind, some were crippled and some were paralyzed. A man was lying there who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw the man and knew that he had been sick for such a long time, Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be well?”

The sick man answered, “Sir, there is no one to get me into the pool when the water starts moving.   While I’m coming to the water, someone always gets in before me.” Then Jesus said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk.”  And immediately the man was well; he picked up his mat and began to walk.

This man had a dream, “If I could get in the water first, then I would be made well.”  For 38 years he had been sick.  The scripture doesn’t tell us what kind of sick, it tells us others are blind and paralyzed, and simply that this man was sick.  And in that day and time that would have meant he was marginalized and outcast. As someone who was sick, he would have been ritually unclean and as someone who was unclean, he would not have been welcome in people’s homes. They wouldn’t have wanted to have contact with him for fear of being unclean themselves.  He wouldn’t have been able to work, maybe because of his illness and maybe simply because he was unclean. So instead he would have had to beg for something to eat. And he likely longed for healing.  For 38 years he was sick. For 38 years he suffered physically, emotionally, relationally, and probably spiritually.  And because of all that, he had a dream: to be made well. 

I imagine that as he dreamed he didn’t just think, oh I hope to be made well. No, I imagine he played it out in his mind.  I think he imagined himself waking up and feeling great, not struggling with pain or nausea or headaches.  He probably imagined himself going to work with the other men in town, invited to join people for meals and festivals and celebrations. He probably imagined friends and family laughing together, enjoying life.  He probably imagined certain events in their fullness and himself healthy and well in the midst of it all.  He had a dream to be made well.  And in seeking after his dream he saw one way to get there, to get in the pool of Bethesda immediately after it was stirred.  If he got in first, then he would be healed and his dream would become a reality.  It may not seem like a big dream, it doesn’t sound fancy or grand, but when you struggle with your health day in and day out for 38 years, being well would be miraculous. And, being well in a culture of clean and unclean would totally change your life. It would change your relationships. It would change your social status. It would change your privilege. It would change where you could eat, where you could live, where you could relax. Being made well would change everything. 

How many of you have ever dreamed of winning the lottery?  Regardless of whether we buy a ticket or not, most of us have imagined what it would be like to win millions.  I have. I started young. I can remember dreaming of the ways I would spend my millions from elementary school on.  (And in my house my parents weren’t big gamblers, so it was only “worth” buying a ticket if the pot got over $100,000,000)  So, if we won the lottery, what kind of things would we do? 

·         Buy a house

·         Pay off our debt

·         Buy a new car

·         Go on a vacation

·         Help our parents with their expenses

·         Help our children or our grandchildren go to college

·         Buy some new clothes

·         What else?

I don’t know about you, but in doing that math, I rarely even got to a million dollars in expenses….most of the time it was closer to $500,000 when I it was all said and done.  $500,000 of my $100,000,000 million and I had a long way to go to spend all my money. So I started dreaming of helping other people. I wanted to renovate an old apartment building and help the homeless.  I wanted to pay for wells for clean water. I wanted to build schools and educate others. I wanted to grant scholarships for people to go to college.  I could dream up a lot of fun ways to spend the money and none of it had anything to do with me.  I had dreams of having a few nice things, but beyond that, my biggest dream was to bless other people and make a real and lasting difference in their lives. 

Many of us would say our dream is to win the lottery, but really, our dream is to do our list, because with or without the lottery, our list is still there.  If we could actualize our dream without the lottery, would we still want the car?  Or the house? Or the new wardrobe? Or to help our family?  Or to change the world?  Of course!  We all have dreams, and many don’t require a million dollars. 

I imagine our dreams sound a little more like this:

·         If I were thin, then I would love my body.

·         If I could pray like Michelle, then I would pray out loud for other people.

·         If our bills were paid, then we would take that trip to Europe.

·         If I could make sense of the Bible stories, then I would have strong faith. 

·         If life weren’t so hectic, then we would try and adopt.

·         If I didn’t have to work, then I would take the time to build my motorcycle. 

·         I’m sure there are hundreds more….at least one, if not two or three, for each person in this room. 

We all have dreams.  Every single one of us has a dream of doing something or being something or going somewhere IF only our circumstances were different in one way or another.  So, I want you to take a minute, pull out your bulletin, or the notepad on your phone, or your Bible and I want you to write your dream.  IF __________________________ THEN ________________________________.  IF (this changed) THEN (I would live my dream). 

(share around)?

We all have a dream.  Your dream is actually the part that follows your “then”.  The “if” is what needs to change or happen in order to actualize your dream.  For the man at Bethesda, his dream was to be made well, his IF was getting in the pool first.  IF I could get in the pool first, THEN I could live my dream of being well. 

Alright, so focusing back on the scripture and the scene before us, Jesus enters the scene.  He comes to the pool at Bethesda and sees the man there and KNOWS he’s been sick for a long time and so Jesus approaches the man and asks, “Do you want to be made well?”  And the man says, “I try to be made well. I try to get to the pool first, but I’m never able to make it in time.”  And Jesus says, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk.”  Do you hear the tension that’s there?  The man was focusing on the contingency. He was focusing on his IF, not his dream.  And Jesus said, “no, focus on your dream, make it your reality. Get up and be well. Get up and live your dream.” 

Like the man, many of us have our dream. We imagine it. We see it in our mind’s eye.  We garner hope from our dream.  But our energy and our effort is focused on our contingency.  We put our time, energy, and money into our “IF” and then we never live our dream.  In essence, our IF, our contingency, becomes a barrier to realizing our dreams.  The IF consumes us. It gets the best of what we have to offer. And our dream gets none of us.  For the man, the healing power of the pool became his focus.  He spent his days waiting for it to be stirred, clamoring for a chance at healing, focusing on the limits of his illness, but never daring to live his dream before them.  But the truth is, God doesn’t want us spending our lives battling our obstacles. God wants us living our dreams. 

Now of course that’s easier said than done.  Remember, living his dream of being well would dump that man’s world on its head.  To be well would mean not being at the pool every day. It would mean different friends, he wouldn’t be with those who were at the pool, he would be with others at work, or sitting around a table, or sharing in the temple.  To live his dream would change everything in his life: his habits, his expectations, and his norms.  Living his dream would mean a complete upheaval of his life.  Let’s not minimize that truth. But, it’s his dream, so it’s worth it. Right? 

Now, what about your dream?  Do you really want your dream?  Do you want to pray without reservation? Or enjoy financial freedom? Or love your body? Or build that motorcycle? Or have a better marriage?  Or spend your time in missions?  Because God wants you to live your dreams. BUT, living your dreams will change everything. Your habits will have to change, your expectations will be different, and you will have a new normal.  But it will be worth it.  Won’t it? Aren’t your dreams worth it?  Stop focusing on your “IF”, stop putting your time and energy into the barriers and obstacles that are standing in the way of your dream.  Start living your dream.

 Stand up, go out, and live your dream. 

Pastor's (final) Epistle

This is the letter/sermon I wrote to share with my congregation at Wesley UMC in Riverside on my last Sunday as their pastor. 

Dear brothers and sisters in the faith,

First and foremost, I give God thanks for you.  I give God thanks for your faithfulness, your love, your welcoming spirit, and your generosity of heart. 

While our time together seems like only a brief moment in time, it has been worthwhile time spent doing kingdom work, and for that I give thanks as well. 

You are a healthy church full of faithful disciples seeking to understand and follow the will of God in your lives.  And that truth makes you a healing church as well. You have been a place of physical, emotional, relational and spiritual healing for many in our midst.  You have been a place of refuge for those who have been wounded by other churches and other Christians.  You have been a light and a reminder that Christians are good, that we seek to be loving, gracious, and welcoming.  And though sometimes we have stumbled in those ways, sometimes we have been challenged by the quirks and habits of one another, and sometimes challenged by the circumstances and choices of the stranger, you keep trying.  You always go back to a place of faithfulness and ask what God is asking us to do. 

You are a curious people, full of questions and commentary! It’s a beautiful thing. The Bible is meant to be our light and our life source and to be that in our lives, it has to be explored, known and understood.  Questions make that possible.  So study the scriptures and ask your questions.  Challenge the tough passages. Don’t dismiss them as irrelevant or outdated, but look to understand their original and deeper meaning so that you might hear God’s truth for your own life.  Fall in love with the Word of God.  It is the best story book out there.  There is history, intrigue, war stories, stories about the underdog, stories of heroes and heroines, poetry, stories as curious and odd as a sci fi novel, and even a bit of romance. And all of those stories come together to tell the story of God in our history and in our midst.

Some of you worry about asking your questions. You’re afraid to reveal your doubts. You think that doubts mean you lack faith.  Please don’t be anxious.  Doubts don’t equate to a lack of faith.  Doubts deal with understanding, sometimes heart understanding, but mostly with head knowledge.  By probing around and asking questions, you will dig deeper and create a stronger foundation for connection with God and with others. You will be better equipped to deal with the hard questions, the challenging scriptures, and life’s situations that cause your world to crumble.  You may still hesitate about asking your questions, you’re worried something might crack, something might shatter.  You are right, but not in a bad way, asking questions and digging deeper will break the Bible and your faith wide open.  It will be bigger and it will be better. I have that confidence because I’ve doubted. I’ve asked questions. I’ve dug around and broken things apart.  And while some of that felt scary, in the end it made me stronger.  It made me more confident in my faith because I knew what I believed and I knew why I believed it.

So keep asking questions and being in conversation with one another.  You do not all believe alike.  You are not at the same place in your journey.  You are not the same politically or theologically and some people find that as a reason to fight in the church.  Instead, you have found it as a place to nurture one another, learn from each other, and grow in your own beliefs.  Keep it up! Utilize each other’s experiences, faith, and understandings of the Bible and of God to grow and be grown. 

It has been my gift and my privilege to be your pastor.  You have welcomed me into some of the most holy, sacred, and vulnerable places of your lives.  You have confessed, you have grieved, and you have revealed yourselves to me; and I do not take that lightly.  What you have shared I hold in confidence; it was holy sharing.  I am grateful for time spent sharing over meals, in coffee shops, in my office, in the sanctuary, and in the parking lot. 

God has been revealed to us over and over again.  We have prayed and learned to pray together.  We have prayed for and seen God’s healing work in our lives.  We have witnessed miracles in our midst, some that were instantaneous and others that took place over time.  We have battled our demons together.  We have fought our pride, our anger, our self-doubt, depression, fear, anxiety. We have rebuked them in the name of Jesus and prayed for joy, peace, and hope to infiltrate our hearts.  

I hate to acknowledge that this is our last day together.  I hesitate to say goodbye, mostly because it forces me to acknowledge the reality that I will not be with you week after week.  Friends you have shared your lives with me and blessed me in the growth and formation of my own life and family.  I will miss sharing with you. I lament the moments we will not spend together.  My heart breaks because I will not be here to comfort you or care for you when your loved ones pass. I won’t be here to help you say goodbye to those you love or to walk with you as you learn to journey without them.  I won’t be here to celebrate new babies and new relationships and new adventures.  And yet, the message that has been my truth since the beginning of my time in ministry 14 years ago, continues to be true and real.  Ministry is not about me.  It’s about God.  And in my times of doubt and struggle, I have been reminded that it’s not about me. It’s not about my ignorance or my lack of experience. It’s not about my naivete or my quirks. It’s about God.  And as long as I allow God to work through me, then God’s work will be done.  And the true is same today.  As I stand here proud of what we have done together, the projects that have been completed and the lives that have been affected, I am reminded, it’s still not about me.  It’s about God and what God has done through us and in us as the community of faith. 

And while I will definitely miss sharing those moments with you and seeing your smiles and soaking in the love in your hugs, your growth as disciples, and the love you share isn’t about me. It’s about God.  What we have done we have done for God.  Where we have struggled, we have done so to grow in God.  Where we have been challenged, it is by God’s truth.  And whether it’s me, or anyone else here as your pastor, it should always be about God. 

Pastor David is preparing, even now, to come and be your pastor.  He has prayed for you. He has imagined your life in ministry together.  He is excited to be a servant of God working in your midst.  I thank God for David, for his talents, for his calling, for the richness of his experiences, for the things he knows that I do not, and I pray for him as your leader and you as his congregation.  He is a trusted servant and I pray that you are a tremendous blessing to one another.  I pray that you listen for God’s leading and move into the future God has called you to together. 

Beloved community of God, I pray that God pours out a tremendous anointing of the Spirit upon you and that you are a light and witness in this community about the grace, love, and welcome of our God.  I pray you continue to witness, in word and in deed, about the marvelous and redeeming work of our Lord.  I pray your eyes stay fixed on God that you may strengthened and grow to do things beyond your imagination, all for the sake of the kingdom.