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Minutes of Meetings with God |
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Upside Down ... |
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| Folks at church on Sunday mornings have heard me say before I begin
a sermon: "I need to hear this sermon, so you have to listen to it, too."
What follows is offered in a fashion similar to those sermons. In deciding
what to do in the "pastor's column" for the parish newsletter, I came to
the conclusion that it would probably work best if I shared with you some
of the results of the times when I sit down and try to think things through.
I call those times "meetings with God and myself", and I'll use this space
to keep the minutes of a few of the "meetings." It helps me to think and
to keep these "minutes"... maybe they'll help you, too. I've been thinking a great deal about the question: "What would it mean to live my life the way Jesus lived his?" It seems that my answer to this question is vital to knowing how I will fulfill my Christian discipleship. The question became even more important to me as I began my most recent ministry assignment. It didn't take very long to come to the conclusion that there probably isn't just one answer to my question. And this one question gave rise to many other questions. Charles Sheldon, in his inspirational book entitled In His Steps, proposed that the way in which to live as Jesus lived is to meet each of life's circumstances with the question: "What would Jesus do?" In His Steps started me wondering whether the answer to my question might not be another question. I experimented with that question: "What would Jesus do?" When I had the presence of mind to do so, I asked myself: "What would Jesus do in this particular situation?" "How would Jesus handle this?" On the whole, the experiments went well. Asking that question often simplified making decisions and dealing with situations because Jesus would do whatever is obviously loving, forgiving, healing, generous (unselfish) and joyous. There were times, however, when the question: "What would Jesus do?", didn't seem to help much ... if at all. The loving, forgiving, healing, generous and joyful thing that Jesus would do wasn't obvious. I found myself asking yet another question, before asking myself: "What would Jesus do?" As I prayed and sought the Holy Spirit's direction, I found myself asking: "If Jesus were looking at this, what would he see?"... "How would Jesus look at this situation?" After praying, more and more often, I would find myself thinking: "OK, Mike. Turn "it" (this situation) around ... look at it from the other side ... turn things upside down ... stand it on its head ... go at it backwards if you need to!" Could this be the Spirit trying to direct me to look at a situation the way in which Jesus would? I would like to think so. Sometimes, but not always, it was easier to see the loving, forgiving, healing, generous, and joyful thing to do when I did turn "it" around. I began to take notice of some things, things that I had previously missed, as I studied about Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus frequently told people to repent. I had thought that "to repent" mainly meant confession of past sins; but, the Greek word that is used literally means "to turn around" ... "to reverse". While I was studying "leadership in the New Testament", I came across Jesus' sayings: "The first shall be last, and the last shall be first" and "the leader will be the servant of all". Jesus said that the widow's mite, the smallest of gifts, was really the greatest. One of my cousins sent me a book he had written about "foot washing among Christians". My cousin noted that Jesus turned things up-side down when he (the Master) took on the role of servant (slave) and washed the disciples' feet. Jesus seems to have frequently reversed things, turned them around, stood things on their heads or did things backwards. I even learned that the Romans who persecuted early Christians sometimes called Christians: "The ones who turn the world upside-down." What would it mean for me to live my life like Jesus lived his? What would Jesus do? How would Jesus look at this situation? How can I see what is the loving, healing, forgiving, healing, generous, and joyous thing to do? Maybe Jesus would turn things around, stand them on their heads, or go backwards. And to live like Jesus maybe I'll need to do that, too. So if you see me standing on my head.... |