Re-Entry Into Life Post-Missions Trip

And we're back....

This last week I had the opportunity to go on our ministry's missions trip to Baja California.  We arrived home just two nights ago.

And now to begin the re-entry process.

I am always depressed after a missions trip.  For a week (however long) it is like we step out of time into some alternate world.  We have awesome encounters and crazy Jesus-y experiences.  And then we step back into reality as though nothing happened and nothing changed.  And I hate that.  I hate coming home to a world which is exactly the same as I left it. After all these experiences I just had I am not the same.  I am changed.  But my surroundings are not.  And it can be so easy to default back into old patterns.  But by doing so I begin to act like everything is the same.  The passage of time also threatens my experiences, to wipe away and dilute out everything I have seen.   I hate the idea I will lose sight of all these powerful experiences.

There is also the fact these children and these people, who just days ago I was helping and serving, are still there and still in need.  Meanwhile I find myself back at home in my comfortable life-style.  There was this sense on the trip that I was actually doing something, living for God, accomplishing something.  Now I am home and what am I doing?  What purpose am I achieving now?  I have to recalculate and re-calibrate my daily purpose.

All of this can be exacerbated by people (understandably) wanting to know how the trip was.  How do you capture in a sentence everything about the trip?  "It was challenging" or "it was life changing" just cannot express everything I want it to.  It can feel like I devalue the memories by trying to reduce them into a couple words.  But it can also be overwhelming for you and your friend when you go into the 55 minute answer to the question "how was Mexico?"  I find myself wanting to be around those who also went, who are also processing, because we do not have to explain anything.  Even if we are not talking about our experiences we understand without words what each other are going through.

I do not want to forget Mexico.  I do not want to forget the people I met in Mexico.  I do not want to forget all God taught me in Mexico.  It was only a week and the experiences were not too different from other missions trips I have been on, but still the truth is I am different and things are not the same.  The challenge ahead is figuring out how to walk in this truth.

Shakespeare, Jesus, and fandom

I remember in middle school being grudgingly forced to read a few classic works by William Shakespeare.  Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and at least one other which I have forced from my memory.  Having grown up around people reading old school King James version of the Bible, understanding the Shakespearean language was not too difficult for me.  But throughout middle school and high school I rather despised Shakespeare. Honestly for me it was not Shakespeare himself who bothered me, it was the fans.

You can spot a Shakespeare fan a mile away.  Just say his name, any character's name, or sometimes even words like "doth" and "yonder" and their eyes light up, glaze over, and they begin foaming at the mouth.  By the time I reached high school I was sick of English teachers swooning over his words.

But somewhere in college I decided to give Shakespeare another chance.  I accepted maybe there was a reason for all the hype even if the fans drive me crazy.  I realized my issue was not with Shakespeare.  Once I got over this I discovered I do in fact appreciate Shakespeare.  

I feel Jesus can get the same kind of backlash from His fans as Shakespeare.  Too many people dismiss Jesus because of His fans; hypocritical, not relatable, and broken.  It is sad to think people can miss the God of the universe because of some crazy fans.  What is the solution?  Do we need to set standards before someone is allowed to be a part of the Church?  In an age where marketability and branding are so important do we need to protect our image from anyone who might infringe upon our trademark or defame Jesus and the Church?

Some people get upset when the Church is full of broken people, but this is exactly what the Church was created to be, a body of broken people seeking after the one who can save them.  While it would be nice if the Jesus fans could behave in a more marketable fashion, most of the burden of missing the Truth lies with the person who judges based on the fans.  Who are we to dictate what the fans and followers must be like before we will make the commitment?  It is true dealing with other broken people as a broken person can be aggravating, but Truth is not determined by fandom or popular vote.  Jesus is worth it whether His fans act like it or not.

What do you do when a poor kid hands you food?

What do you do when a poor kid hands you food?  Specifically, what do you do when this poor kid, Iago, hands you food?

Let me back up.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to go on a missions trip to Brazil.  It was a life changing experience.  We worked in a favela (slum/squatter village) called Jaragua on the edge of the city of Bauru.  For a week we spent all daylight hours playing with the children of prostitutes and drug dealers.  We ran around the dirt streets, gave piggy-back rides, and just spent time with the kids.

One of the most amazing experiences for me happened on the second to last day.  All week we had been giving out food whether bread rolls, gummy vitamins, or snacks.

On this second to last day I was sitting down between games of tag when Iago came over.  He proudly showed me the snack bag he had just been given, sat down in my lap, and began to eat.

And then he offered me a piece. . . 

You have to understand a couple things.  

1.  I studied microbiology in college, I know too much about diseases.

2.  Iago was not hungry.  Not hungry enough to even think about sharing his food.  These kids never get enough food.  After a week of our giving out food this child is full, full for the first time in who knows how long?

3.  For this first time in who knows how long Iago has the opportunity to give something to someone else.  For once his circumstances did not require Iago think only of himself.

So what do you do when Iago offers you food with his dirty favela hand?

You reach out with your dirty favela hand and you eat the gift he just offered you.  And you praise Jesus for the work He is doing in that moment which you are privileged to be a part of. 

Sure you say a little prayer asking God to kill the bacteria and inactivate any viruses, but mostly you thank God.

It makes you wonder if we really believe it is better to give than to receive?  If so then at times we should gratefully give others the opportunity.  

It is so easy in the face of such extreme poverty to think I am here only to give, to serve, to provide for these children and these people.  But there can be pride in thinking I have everything to give and others have nothing to offer me.  They are people too with plenty to offer others.  My focus should be less on what I can give and more on how to truly love and serve these children, whether giving or receiving.  It can be a hard balance at times, but my goal should be on what best serves them not on what best serves my feelings to serves.  As many people prepare to go on short term missions trips may we keep these ideas in mind.

Jesus' Defense

I find it both inspiring and sobering that during Jesus' entire trial, flogging, and execution only one person ever stood up for him.  Not the crowd, they deserted him.  The disciples fled during his arrest.  We all know Peter denied Jesus three times.  Pilate was too afraid of the mob to do something, Herod wanted a show, the Roman soldiers saw easy prey.  Even one of the two men crucified with Jesus mocked him (Lk 23:39).  But the one person who stood up for Jesus was the second man being crucified.  Lk 23:39-42:

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Here we have the God of the universe being falsely accused and executed, and only one person stands up for him.  Jesus died a rebel's death to atone for rebels like me.  Maybe this other guy was the one person who at that moment understood how much he needed a savior.

I would like to think I would stand up for Jesus in this sort of situation.  I have never been asked to lay down my physical life for my God.  Hopefully I would.  But self-preservation can be so tempting.  Granted at this point the bandit on the cross next to Jesus was being executed, but even then it would be easy to sink into anger or cynicism, to lash out like the other convict.  We see it is only the man who had all hope stripped from him stand up for Jesus.  It is fascinating how much clarity comes from brokenness (or an awareness of our brokenness).  Discomfort has a way of pushing us toward God or away from God.

May we not be too comfortable to take a stand for our faith, and maybe allow brokenness and discomfort to push us toward our loving God who suffered so much for us.

Palm Branches of the Rebellion

Palm Sunday has become one of my favorite liturgical holidays.

Having grown up in a liturgical church we celebrated Palm Sunday each year complete with waving palm branches.  And I understood we waved the palms because the crowd had waved them during Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Jn 12:12-15).  But I never wondered why the crowd waved palms in the first place.  And the answer is what makes things interesting.

According to Jewish tradition Jesus was not the first person to have palm branches waving as he marched into Jerusalem.  Over a hundred years prior the Jewish crowds had waved palm branches as a symbol of the Maccabean victory over the Greeks.

And so as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the eve of Passover, the great festival of their ancestors freedom from slavery in Egypt, the question for the Jews and the Romans alike is what kind of king is Jesus?  The crowd waved palms as a symbol of victory over their oppressors.  They spread their cloaks in homage to their king.  This was rebellion against Rome.

Everyone thought Jesus came to be a political king.  The Jews saw his arrival in Jerusalem for Passover as the perfect time to begin his uprising.  Little did they know His plans were so much greater.

The people wanted a rebellion.  Jesus came to start a revolution.  They wanted to seize power, Jesus came to lay down his power for us (Phil 2:5-11).  The crowd underestimated the extent of Jesus's kingdom.  And often we do too.

I like to think somehow Jesus is only king over segments of my life, my moral behavior, or the "spiritual" portions, as if his truth and his kingdom do not affect all aspects of who I am.  The truth is we all have been seduced by the appeals of empire, and have accepted the values of this world as "normal".  But Jesus is not just an addendum to my nice comfortable life.  

In reality Jesus's plans are so much greater than mine.  His ways are more encompassing than we want to believe.  I have to surrender more than I expected.  I am still learning the extent of what truly following Jesus costs.  My hope is to one day leave the empire behind completely and to be free from the propaganda.

I love that hosanna means "save now".  Here we have the crowd cheering "save now, save now" without understanding Jesus has come to die for our sins so we may be saved.  Jesus in his goodness knows what we really need.  He understands our desperation better than we do.  And he is faithful to answer us even when we do not understand.

So let us wave our palm branches in protest of the empire which has seduced us into complacency.  Let us walk in the ways of the kingdom as exiles not a part of this world.  May we proclaim truth and fight injustice, starting with the injustice in our own lives.  Jesus please "save now" because I need you to save me.