Come as you are …

If you’re not familiar with the story of “The Woman at the Well”  it’s found in the Gospel of John 4:5-42.  It’s a long text that is mostly conversation — and it was fun to have it acted out yesterday for both worship services.  Like several other stories in the bible, I wish we knew this woman’s name.  We know her circumstances, and we have some idea of the baggage she brought with her to the well that afternoon. Much to her surprise, Jesus knew everything about her.

Jesus knew and he accepted her.  Jesus knew and welcomed her into God’s kingdom.  Never before had she experienced such unconditional welcome.  She was so blown away by the experience she couldn’t contain her excitement and began telling everyone what had happened.  She knew she had an encounter with the Messiah and had no interest in keeping that a secret.

It’s been said that being known is the greatest of all human longings.   People will go to extremes to satisfy that longing.    The proliferation of people wanting to be on reality shows and homegrown videos that go viral on YouTube are examples of our attention-seeking compulsions.    And who hasn’t sought out attention in some unhealthy way, even if we don’t do it in such public fashion.   Left to our own devices, we look in all the wrong places, listen to all the wrong voices, and grab at all the wrong opportunities.  Thank God we are not left on our own.

The woman at the well was seeking to be known for something other than the baggage she brought with her.   She was vulnerable and ripe for exploitation by anyone who happened to be at the well that afternoon.  But instead, she met Jesus, and it made all the difference in her world.  She didn’t know how thirsty she was, and she didn’t understand what living water meant exactly.   She didn’t have to know.  Jesus knew, and he was waiting for her.

I believe the ability to turn our lives around has everything to do with who greets us at the well when we come seeking relief from our thirst.  I believe our faith develops depending on who greets us at the well when we seek answers to our questions and doubts.  I believe our ability to make good choices is influenced by who is there waiting for us at the well. 

I serve at the well that is Disciples Christian Church, and I pray that seekers will find Jesus waiting for them here.  I pray that those who are seeking will find us to be like him — accepting and open, generous and kind, willing to reach out to a stranger to enfold him or her with love.  I pray the water here is of the living variety — unexplainable perhaps but we’ll know it when we taste it. 

And I pray that I will find Jesus at the well waiting for me, already knowing me and still accepting me, with his hands outstretched and wet with living water.  I pray that any influence I have standing at the well will be in pointing to Jesus and not to myself.  Will you join me in that prayer? 

Blessings –

Pastor Kris

It’s rare that I’m in church and not preaching!  It’s even more rare for me not to preach on a Sunday during Lent.  But yesterday was an occasion that called for another voice from the pulpit — the voice of Mark Rogers-Berry, who was preaching in the morning in anticipation of his being ordained in the afternoon.  I”ll admit that every-week preachers like myself are not always comfortable taking a seat in the congregation to listen to someone else.

That said, Mark’s message yesterday was a good one for me to hear.  He preached on the familiar story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus in the cover of darkness, wanting Jesus to affirm what he thought he already knew.  Instead Jesus offered him the challenge of being born again in God’s Spirit while chastising him for thinking he already knew it all. 

It was good to be reminded.  Oh, I don’t need a reminder that I don’t know it all!  Rather, it was good to be reminded of that gift of rebirth.   So many times in my life now — perhaps even too many to count — I have been guided by the Holy Spirit into a new life.  To a  whole new way of living, with fresh eyes to see the world differently, using abilities that I had not yet discovered.   Born again.

Perhaps the most significant rebirth was the journey I began with a call to ministry while on staff at Geist Christian Church in Indianapolis, four years of seminary that followed soon after that, and the laying on of hands at my own ordination in May of 2000.  Memories of that day came flooding back yesterday afternoon when we gathered around Mark and layed hands on his head.  Born again.

Another rebirth was finding David again after not seeing him since elementary school, getting to know him for the first time as an adult, and falling in love.  We both believe that God created us all over again as partners for the rest of our lives.  And as a married couple, God brought us more new life when I was called to be pastor at Disciples Christian.  Born again.

I”m writing this on the first full day of spring and though the temperatures are cool, there are crocuses in bloom in the churchyard outside my office.  Born again.  We are journeying through the season of Lent, following Jesus to the cross, and yet each Sunday we celebrate Christ’s resurrection at the Table.  Born again.

What more God has in store for me, I do not know, I just know there’s more, and it will be good to start fresh once more.  Thank you, Rev. Mark, for that reminder.

Born again –

Pastor Kris

We’ve come to expect that the 1st Sunday in Lent will bring us the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.  Just after his baptism, before his ministry begins, and when Jesus was essentially  a young adult — immediately he’s forced into making critical choices.  Saying no to temptation and remaining faithfully God’s son. 

How stark the difference between Jesus’ experience — read Matthew 4:1-11 to see for yourself — and our own.  He was being tempted with the basic necessity of food.  Tempted to use his power to prove that God exists.   Jesus hungry and alone with the devil as his only companion.  And us?  What tempts us?  We have instant accessibility to most everything and the only rule of the day is over-indulgence! 

The contrast is painful to admit.  We ought to be red-faced and uncomfortable  and squirming because God nailed us this time.  God got us and but good.  Just as surely as Jesus was the shining star of resisting temptation, we excel at giving in to it. 

The story from Matthew tugs at our senses.   We don’t need to be biblical scholars to get that Jesus’ hunger was real.  We don’t need more than a single reading to notice that the temptations progress not just in height (from the ground to the mountaintop) but also in intensity and scope.  The first is a basic need for food and then the circle widens and the third one tries to take on the world.  We live that progression, don’t we?  Whether it’s from taking that first drink or telling that first lie or cheating just this one time on a partner or spending that first dollar we didn’t really have.  Unlike Jesus, we don’t say no the first time and before we know it the yesses are coming all too quickly and easily.  And yet, with all those yesses, we’re still left starving. 

Starving for purpose and meaning, love and wholeness.  For the feeling of enough.  For realistic expectations.  We’re starving to be known for who we are rather than for what we have or don’t have.  We long for the stamp of hope for who we can be, rather than marked permanently for who we’ve been and what we have done.  The good news is we can find that purpose and meaning and love and wholeness if we look to Jesus and learn from him.  He absolutely and steadfastly refused to give in to someone elses notion of who he was supposed to be.  He was a broken record of refusal to be anything but God’s son.  He used his power to stick to his single purpose which was to be obedient to God.

We are God’s children too.  And with Jesus as our savior and the Holy Spirit as our guide, we have been given strength enough for that single purpose too.   I hope you’ll journey through Lent with me working to figure out how to keep from giving in to all that we think will fill the void, when the only thing that will fill that void is God. 

Blessings,

Pastor Kris

Hello and welcome to my blog.  As part of my personal Lenten discipline and my church’s Lenten programming, I plan to write each week through Easter.  My writing will connect with the sermon I’ve preached that week which you can listen to on our website, www.discipleschristian.org. 

My journey through Lent will be enhanced by your participation in reading what I’ve written.  But even more than that, I hope that you will share your thinking by leaving comments.  We can walk together even at a distance.

Blessings –

Pastor Kris