Chris Yaw

It happened many years ago but it may as well have been yesterday.
It was the day I realized that all that time I had spent in grade school, high school and college study had not gotten me even one inch closer to the yearning, deep in my soul, to becoming who I was supposed to be. I was 22 and I was lost.

I had just spent four wonderful years enduring and even enjoying that very expensive rite of passage that young people go through (also known as college…), and like so many of them I had a degree and a diploma, but absolutely no idea which way my privileged life was going to go. The inner pain was nearly excruciating, maybe you have felt it (it's not just for college kids). My parents had invested so much in me. My teachers had such high expectations for me. My friends were already leaping and bounding way ahead of me. The pressure was numbing, as there I sat, working in a travel agency, not to fulfill my dream, but to help an ambitious and entrepreneurial friend fulfill his. I had no idea what my dream was.

So in the midst of my lostness I cried out to God, as if a character in the Psalms. I protested to a God whose attention I was incessantly trying to capture: “This is too much,” I remember saying, “Where are you? Do you care? Where should I go? What should I do?"

And then I remember very distinctly that the Lord did not come down from heaven that day and sketch out the next 50 years of my life, binding it in a spiral note book and tabbing all the pages. No, the Lord had something else in mind. You see, I suddenly discovered that on that day, and on every day since, the Lord did hear me. And the Lord did rescue me. How? The Lord came to my aid by changing my faith. The Lord sent family and friends who did not pressure me, but gently held me, and who did all they could to come along side me as I figured out how to make my way through the Valley of the Shadow of Unrelenting Disorientation. The Lord sent me quiet times of prayer and reflection. The Lord sent me those times of Bible reading when certain verses just hit you ‘POW’ right over the head, maybe this has happened to you?

And when I went from working at a travel agency in Michigan to a personal assistant in Colorado, an equally dead-end job, I did not spend long in lament. Why? God had rescued me! My newly re-tooled faith had assured me that I had no standard to live up to but God’s. I am a child of God! I am a man on a divine mission!

Jesus says, in this Sunday's Gospel lesson, that, 'everyone will be salted with fire.' How are we dealing with the fires that burn and test, be they vocation, sickness or loss? Are we lamenting in the face value of them, or are we looking deeper, where God is looking, at the ways our trials shape and mold us into all that God has created us to be?

Reading:
Transforming Stewardship - CK Robertson
For the Sake of Heaven and Earth - Irving Greenberg
Cooking for Baby

The other day my computer went on the fritz.
It started doing things I didn’t want it to do.
It would not obey my commands.
I had no choice but to push ‘reset.’
As I sat there waiting for the computer to restart, I wondered:
What if I could push the ‘reset’ button on my life?
What would I re-program?
What would I build in differently?

One thing I would reset would be my generosity.
Sure, we give our 10% to the church.
And my wife and I support numerous charities.
But we could do so much more if we could push the reset button on our underlying attitude.
Do you know what I mean?

After all, who says we have to live where we live, eat what we eat, buy what we buy and drive what we drive? Do we choose these things based on what we need, or on how much our paychecks allow? A recent study by the National Council of Churches of Christ concluded that, “the main thing blocking church support is simple: it’s an unsurpassing urge for more affluent living.” Just as I think Jesus is shaping my generosity, I discover that it is really rival attractions that gain more of my religious dollar.

Sure, there are lots of factors that, over the years, slowly bent my attitude out of shape. Like fish living in water, we are immersed in an acquisitive culture. Most of the important things in my life depend on me, and everyone else, buying things. Nearly every moment of every day, someone is trying to convince me to buy something that I more than likely don’t need. The average American will spend two years of her life watching television commercials. And living in this fishbowl takes its toll. I don’t know how, but I’ve become utterly convinced that I need most of the stuff that I have. Maybe you have felt this way too.

I know I can’t push the reset button and change overnight. But I do believe that every day I am called to be more like Jesus. This means I am called to be more generous. I believe I can make small changes that add up to a much larger change. I’ve done it before by refusing desserts for a long period, and cashing in on the results on the bathroom scale. One place to start would be pausing to contemplate this simple saying from my childhood:

“Just think, God gave us everything, and we get to keep 90% of it!”

In other words, instead of thinking that everything is mine, I remind myself that it is all God’s, and one of God’s gifts to me is to help distribute it. Now I will let you in on a secret. When someone sends me an email requesting donations for a walk-a-thon, help meeting the mortgage bill, aid a needy child in a foreign country, or for a contribution to church, I absolutely love saying ‘yes.’ I love getting out my checkbook. I like helping people in need. I really like being generous. You probably do too. Pushing the reset button on generosity means getting more in touch with this feeling. How might we do this in our lives today?

Reading:
The Road to Daybreak - Henri Nouwen
For the Sake of Heaven and Earth - Irving Greenberg
Transforming Stewardship - CK Robertson

I got a phone message this week from one of our parishioners, a longtime member who I had not yet met. The tone of the message was urgent so I returned the call right away.

My new friend used calm and steady words to describe the eye-opening experience so many of us have had when our vocabularies are forced to expand and include technical and medical jargon, especially words that have life-threatening connotations. After some time describing the severity of the affliction, the treatment and the prognosis my friend began to make the kinds of connections so many of us make when we face similar circumstances: How does this turn of events play out in the wider space of my life? How is God involved in all this? All of a sudden, the possessions, experiences, goals and plans that were all set and sound are not so firm and immovable. We are in a new place, a scary place, a painful place. But if everything happens for a reason, albeit, reasons we rarely know or understand, then what could God be up to here?

And as my friend so eloquently, wonderfully, and inspirationally described, she intends to use this challenge to move closer to the kind of place Jesus describes to us this in Sunday's reading -"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

Perhaps the biggest temptation you and I face in contemporary society is to simply allow life to pass before us, with all the tragic and happy colors of an Independence Day parade. And as life spins before us and through us and by us we are tempted to simply hold on, unable and unwilling to step back and let it all in. Serious health issues provide us with the kinds of opportunities many of us secretly crave, the chance to get off, step back, and look at our lives for what they are: Gifts from God, given us to enjoy, to share and to give away. And most of the people you and I have known who have gone through serious medical challenges would probably tell us that the opportunity it afforded them to re-think and renew turned out to be greater than they ever imagined, perhaps even life-saving.

Anthony DeMello has noted that pleasant experiences make life delightful, but they rarely, if ever, lead to growth. What leads to growth is painful experiences. Suffering points us toward areas where we have not yet grown, where we need to grow, and be transformed and changed. You and I have probably always suspected that if we knew how to use that suffering- boy, how we would grow.

Reading
Awareness - Anthony DeMello
Imitation of Christ - Thomas a Kempis
My Struggle with Faith - Joseph Girzone

Not far from my house is a stretch of Woodward Avenue that attracts heroin-thin women who wear their clothes like Saran Wrap and hairstyles like Medusa. They sport brash attitudes and colorful vocabularies that would make rugby players blush. They strut and wave and shout into the wee hours of the night in desperate hopes of attracting the attentions of the drivers whizzing by in a 50 mile per hour zone. Most of them are feeding drug habits. Some are feeding children.

I see them in rare instances when my morning run begins before dawn. There they are, giving shout-outs to their associates, heckling for customers, keeping up the neighbors. They’re obnoxious, immoral and rude, and so it’s hard for me to believe that the only place in the Bible where Jesus is bested in a debate, is by someone like this.

This Sunday’s gospel reading, about Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician woman drips with irony. Jesus has just finished cutting the Judean Elite down to size for their judgmentalism regarding hand washing. And here Jesus is, allowing the exact same rules to keep him from helping a woman with a legitimate need – the healing of her daughter. Sure, she’s a Gentile, some say a hooker, who has violated all sorts of taboos like being out alone, talking to a man and talking back to a man. And Jesus seems well aware of this, ‘Let the children be fed first,’ he says, surely not expecting any back talk. But here it comes; ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ It is a retort that sends Jesus, backpedaling; ‘Go- the demon has left your daughter.’

Grit, determination, courage, willpower, fortitude. The Gospel writer is willing to paint Jesus in a bad light so that a greater point can be made: dogged determination goes a long way. Many of us are sitting around, wallowing in self-pity and inertia, and need to wake up to the importance of getting up and doing what we’ve been called to do. We need to drop the apathy, lethargy and indifference and find out what’s really burning inside – what do we really want out of life? And perhaps more importantly, what does life want out of us?

The poverty that plagues the majority of the world, the stupid disease that kills thousands of children every day – were the body of Christ to harbor a prostitute’s desperation toward the suffering of the world, there is probably no social ill we could not conquer. Jesus did not come to save individual souls, but to save the world. What role is Jesus calling us to play in this divine plan?

Reading:
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It – Paul Collier
The Limits of Power – Andrew Bacevich
Mere Christianity – CS Lewis

When Michigan drivers head up north on I-75 and see that flashing yellow merge arrow, most everyone moves over and forms a single file line. This, even though traffic engineers have determined that if everyone stayed put and gently merged at the point of obstruction the time it would take to pass could be drastically reduced. Sure, engineers have tried, with huge signs, 'Merge AT THE ARROW' but Michigan drivers, in fact, American drivers, are much more swayed by their ingrained sensibilities to form a cue as quickly as possible (and coerce others to do this as well) even if there is no traffic law governing this. It is clear that the rules that govern merging traffic on our freeways have less to do with the most efficient way of getting us from Point A to Point B, and much more to do with upholding shared societal rules of right behavior.

And this is what puts you and me in the same boat with our friends the Pharisees in Sunday's gospel reading.

This is where we hear the most important of St. Mark's 'purity' texts, as Jesus goes head to head with the Jewish elite regarding food purity. He and the disciples have just ordered a meal at McDonald's, forgotten to wash their hands and say the blessing, when they get called out as ungodly people because they don't obey, 'the traditions of the elders.'

For their part, these Pharisees understood these traditions not as an attempt to bury the commands of God in trivia, but to apply the torah to every facet of life. They were as well-intentioned as every Michigan driver that gets over as soon as the flashing merger arrow appears. And they were as judgmental as those drivers who always play cop and block other drivers from using the open lane. And they found, as we do, that sometimes our dogged determination to follow all the rules has us missing out on what those rules were established to do: make our lives more fulfilling, spread love and compassion on the earth, and ultimately bring us closer to God.

This exchange reminds us that Jesus came to announce the end of religion (humanity's attempt to find God) and the arrival of love (God's attempt to find us). And loves means reserving judgment, walking in humility and being very long on compassion, which is in stark contrast to what rule-making can do to us. In what ways do we put rule and ritual before basic love for ourselves and others?

Reading:
The Four Hour Work Week -Timothy Ferriss
The Art of Being Together - Francis Wade
A Passion for the Possible - Wm Sloane Coffin

For the few who have asked and the little one who might one day inquire, here is a brief account of that most joyous of August days on which James Christopher, still tucked safely inside mother's womb, decided it was time for a jail break.

After a restless night with a restless belly, mom awakened dad and they headed to the hospital where the doctor declared that six days past 40 weeks was long enough. In short order mom was hooked up to an IV that ensured an imminent delivery, surely by the evening of this feast day of Jeremy Taylor, a 17th century English theologian, intellectual and writer whose best-known work is entitled 'Holy Living, Holy Dying,' which not inappropriately would describe mom's impending experience.

Mom and dad spent this warm day in Room 17, a sun-drenched space, complete with a veteran nurse named Pattie. We were soon joined by a man with a very long needle named Dr. Mansfield whose meticulous aim and precise prescription momentarily speared away the Legion that had been tormenting mom's tummy. Outside our window, Woodward Avenue weighed heavy with one million vintage cars, drivers, spectators, noisemakers and lookie-loos on Detroit's annual 'Dream Cruise' weekend. A few miles down the road, between Six and Seven Mile, the stretch outside our neighborhood, the mayor unveiled some nifty spray paint on the roadway: 'M-1' markers to signify this day as the 100 year anniversary of the first paved road in the world.

Meanwhile we were paving the way for another anniversary. By the dinner hour we were ready to begin the hardest part of getting a little boy into a big world. Our new nurse, Carrie, cheered with all the gusto of a Big-Ten cheerleader as Room 17 swelled to capacity. Dr. Stephen Dean calmly instructed his team, mom focused with determination on the job before her, and dad stood faithfully by, his head swirling with all the emotion of a wedding day.

At 6:52 p.m. the tender cries of a new life had everyone reaching for something; towels, scissors, sutures, note pads, ink pads, cameras and hankies. Eyebrows raised as we wondered just how random our ipod's shuffle really was as Handel's verse announced: 'For unto us a child is born.' Soon the swaddled and swollen one was passed to dad to show mom, baby's eyes searching to match unfamiliar faces with very familiar voices. His ice-cream complexion brought both tears and smiles as the nurse rendered the medical verdict: he's perfect, which we, of course, did not need anyone with any medical training to tell us.

In France we might share a Baquette.
In Israel a bagel or Matzo.
In the Philippines, Pandesal.
Germany, Pumpernickle.
Morocco, Pita.
Italy, Ciabatta or Foccacia.
Soda bread in Ireland, Challah in Damascus, before heading back to the States for Sourdough in San Fran, egg bread in Alabama, or the Midwest’s very own Wonder Bread.

Slice it, toast it, break it or butter it, with anything from margarine to mayonnaise to Marmite (God help us…). Bread was, is, and will always be the literal and metaphorical life-sustainer, the most essential form of nourishment the world knows.

For those with gluten allergies we’re not being literal.
For those on low-carb diets: same thing.
And lest anyone think Jesus had morphed into a giant poppy seed bagel as he delivered these words in John, Chapter 6, you and I are forced to ponder just what he had in mind when he continued to call himself ‘living bread.’

Jesus… the central sustainer and life-giver of our lives.
If this is what we’re meant to live on, then what are we doing with all that other stuff in the cupboard? Why do we feed so regularly off of fickle desires, self-centered appetites and the opinions of others? Sure, that stuff always looks good – scientists say give a chimp the choice between a banana and a Twinkie and he’ll choose the junk food every time.

Jesus is continually asking us what we are feeding on. Are we trusting in our business acumen, market metrics, or a generally favorable gene pool? Whose expectations are we trying to meet? What does it mean to us to put aside everything else and feast on Him?

Reading…
Life Together – Francis Wade
Religious Literacy –Stephen Prothero
The Year of Living Biblically - AJ Jacobs

In the Hebrew Scriptures the prophet Nathan tells the philandering King David this extraordinary tale we all know so well as it has become enshrined in Western literature as the consummate ‘Gotcha’ story-
The ending of ‘The Sting,’ the middle of ‘The Crying Game,’ have nothing on this 3,000 year old tale which eloquently and elegantly takes a turn -and stops the King in his tracks, laying his motives and actions as bare as Bathesheba’s shapely bum.

“Can’t you see what we all see?” Nathan seems to be saying-
What you are doing is so obviously wrong. It is sin and sin is a rebellion against God. But it is also a rebellion against us, the people you’ve been chosen to serve - and ultimately it is a rebellion against yourself.

When you sin, Nathan seems to be pointing out, you are betraying your own self-hood by taking part in this sin that is original to the world. And it is this: the insistence on being what you are not, a desire for a life other than your own.

The Shepherd boy, David, was chosen by God to fearlessly lead and unite the 12 tribes of Israel. Yet once he was anointed King, given the security code to the palace, the cars, bodyguards and expense accounts, he began to fancy himself not in the tradition of an obedient Abraham, hopeful Joseph, or faithful Jacob-
But as Hugh Hefner-
-making a mockery of his people and his reputation as he longed to live a life that was not his own.
‘Be our King!’ – was the strong and united call of Israel-
God said no, then yes, all the while knowing it was a hard job to fill, and God did the best that could be done-
However David decided he wanted to be somebody else.

In what ways do we try to be somebody else?
How do we use the resources we've been given toward selfish ends?
How much energy and how many resources do we spend doing this?
How might we more fully concentrate on who we are, who we're called to be and what we're called to do?

Reading:
Choice, Desire, and the Will of God - David Runcorn
An Altar in the World - Barbara Brown Taylor
Cheese - Max McCalman

King David had six children by six different wives before he spied his bathing beauty (...who was likely just as gorgeous and unsuspecting as Erin Andrews...). Of course, this doesn't include any other wives or concubines that we don't know about.
Yet when he eyed that prize, David, like us, felt that familiar temptation to take what wasn't his and do something he knew he shouldn't do.

So David goes from thinking about it to exploring the possibility. He sends emissaries. Not only does he learn her name, but that she's married. Hmmm... she belongs to someone else... in Hebrew culture, an even bigger problem... But it doesn't stop him. Nor does her pregnancy. Nor does her husband, who he swiftly eliminates. All of these were not just road blocks on David's path of folly. But these were also potential exits. They were bumps to shake him back to his senses. Unfortunately he ignores them. In fact, it seems like nothing is going to stop the King. He has reached warp speed on what has become a superhighway.

As we all know, the pursuit of those things we know we shouldn't do or have can turn into a dark paths, that can become roads that can become destinies. Our follies naturally evolve into all-consuming pursuits that profoundly change us, whether we acknowledge it or not. Thankfully for David, the Lord sent a prophet named Nathan to point to the exit ramp, which always means slowing down, changing direction, and finally coming to a halt.

Chances are we're taking a look at or traveling down some sort of dark path, road or superhighway. What are the exit ramps we're passing up? How many more speed bumps will we have to plow over? What's keeping us from taking the next exit?

Reading...
An Altar to the World - Barbara Brown Taylor (A 'MUST READ')
Be Prepared-Greenberg & Hayden
Me of Little Faith - Lewis Black
www.chrisyaw.com

One of the themes in this Sunday’s Gospel, which details Jesus’ rock star popularity, is this overwhelming sense of love he had for pretty much everybody. Jesus has love written all over him. Jesus, filled with compassion, skips vacation, skips lunch, and all the while pines over the needs of others, ‘they look like sheep without a shepherd’ he laments – and instead of taking time for himself, he jumps back into the fray, thinking of nothing more than the pressing needs around him.

This picture of Jesus’ life is an icon of other-centeredness – where the needs of others trump those of his own. Sure, Jesus recognized times of respite, and often sojourned alone –as we know, even our cars need maintenance. But the relentless ability Jesus had to constantly put others before him has marveled disciples of all ages. So here is my list of 7 Tips for Living an Other-Centered Life:

1-Wake up with a sense of others. When we get up and thank God for a new day, include a list of specific people for whom we are also thankful. Name them. And don’t forget people we will meet in the day ahead.
2-Make a ‘sick list.’ Keep it in your desk or in your head, but make a list of those whom you know are undergoing adversity. Find a way to review this list regularly, perhaps during your commute and for 2 minutes think about and pray for them, contemplating ways you may be able to help.
3-Shop for others. Next time you go to the store, any store don’t just shop for yourself, shop for others. Put on your shopping list, ‘food for the hungry,’ ‘clothes for the homeless,’ and ‘kitchen appliances for the poor.’ It need not be large or expensive, but make it meaningful, it will help us live outside ourselves.
4-Put others in the driver’s seat. Next time you take to the highway intentionally think of other drivers. As we know there is a certain anonymity to driving that can make us rude or discourteous. I was once driving in England with a friend when we were terribly cut off by a speeding driver. When I asked my friend why he didn’t so much as honk he replied, ‘Perhaps he is having a bad day.’ Try treating other drivers politely.
5-Find a mentor. There are people in our lives who seem to glow with other-centeredness – those who seem to live to ask what is new in our lives and constantly surprise us with gifts, cards and other signs of care for us. Draw closer to these people, it may rub off.
6-Make a Blessing List- Every once in a while we’re hear someone say, ‘I love that color/flavor/flower, etc.’ Or you may hear someone say ‘oh I really need one of those. Don’t’ let these comments slide by, but inconspicuously take note and do what you can to surprise that person at an unexpected moment.
7-Immerse Yourself in the Love Story- Finding a way to connect with the Love Story that is Jesus’ story is the best way to grown in other-centeredness. Routine Bible study or devotional reading are great aids as are music and movies, find what works for you and go deeper. Love isn’t just a feeling, emotion or even a gift, it’s action, something we play a role in writing all over ourselves.

Reading…
An Altar in the World – Barbara Brown Taylor
Traffic-Tom Vanderbilt
The Four Hour Workweek- Tim Ferriss

"I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter."

This is a story about the decisions we make when we choose to listen to the voices around us, instead of our own, and we end up going in directions we don’t want to go. Yet we listen to them anyway, not knowing it may cost us our lives.

There’s a tug of war going on in Herod’s household – his wife wants John dead, and Herod wants him alive. His wife sees John as an irritating boil on the underside of their marriage and wants him lanced. Herod sees him as a man of integrity who speaks God’s truth.

The pressure’s on.
Will Herod cave?
The painting above tells us the answer.

What happens to us when we cave?
Three things. First, we allow others to define us. We surrender the ship to the sailors, relinquishing our appointed roles to those less qualified and much less invested in the good will of the enterprise. Second, we tear down our own self-image. We subtly give in to our deepest fears of self-worth, trading our confidence in ourselves for that of others, to our long-term detriment. And finally, when we choose to listen to the voices of others over our own we give up our ability to reach our full potential. We will never be complete. We can only ascend to the heights of a scale defined by someone else, not by us, not by God.

Living Christian lives of integrity is a by-product of a deeper walk with Jesus.
Growing in Christ means continually reminding ourselves of our place in the universe; we are God’s people, created for a reason, destined for duty, equipped with hearts made for hearing the Creator’s voice, so each one of us can play the unique role we’ve been given. And while our stage instructions frequently come from other people, we all play a balancing game between “Mother Knows Best” and our own inner conscience, which sometimes takes us someplace else.

To what degree do we allow the voices and opinions of others to shape us? Do we understand the consequences of this? In what ways can we be more true to the voice within us?

Reading…
Walking the Bible – Bruce Feiler
The Sins of Scripture – John Spong
The Great Divorce – C.S. Lewis

The title of this week's entry is a quote from German theologian Emil Brunner and reminds us of this week's Gospel reading and the sending out of Jesus’ first converts.

We hear about ‘conversion’ - a popular topic in the New Testament, and not just for the uninitiated. In fact the majority of conversion language used in the New Testament is aimed at followers of Jesus.
Sure, we’re asked to ‘change’ when we agree to follow Christ-
But it's as if we’re asked to change even more as we get to know Him.

I remember a seminary professor saying that only 15% of conversions to Christianity are sudden, like Paul being struck from his horse, and 85% are gradual.

They are like the disciples who slowly, but surely, figured out who Jesus was.
Ever notice that the Bible does not record one instance of an Apostle being baptized?
And, aside from Doubting Thomas, and his moment of Epiphany, we get the idea that Jesus became known to the disciples not all at once, but after repeated encounters.

And that’s what happens to most of us.

We come to trust in Christ gradually, sometimes very gradually-
And it often happens in churches, where many of us have been attending for decades, and over a period of time, perhaps we can’t name the day or days, but we come to deeper and deeper places of following Jesus.

And so we hear what happens to those who draw closer to that voice as Jesus, amidst his teaching tour, calls twelve people, impels these followers to do the one thing every Christian is charged to do:
To go.
Do something.
Do something to change the world.

Many of us forget about this essential, for it is so easy to do.
In fact, most of us do!
It's been said that 80% of America’s churches are not growing.
The reasons are many and myriad-
But we all know how easy it is to come and fellowship and worship and stay warm in this wonderful cocoon-
-without realizing how essential our going forth in the name of Christ really is.

But it is, for ‘The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning."
Jesus sends them out, gives us abilities, to do the same work He does.
What might that work look like for us this week?

-----------------------
Reading...
Keeping the Baby Alive Till Your Wife Comes Home - Walter Roark
Fireweed Evangelism - Elizabeth Geitz
Transforming Disciples - Linda Grenz

Chris Yaw

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