Jesus' mother gets little press in my tradition.  We've chosen to focus more on Christ and his teachings, sufferings, death, and resurrection.  We've chosen to focus on church, worship, service, and rational thinking.  However, we have done little with other areas such as the end times, miracles today, and Mary.  It's not that we don't believe the story or that we don't respect the story.  We embrace the story without much press.  However, we are also a people who believe in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  In other words Jesus is not in front of us or behind us, but inside us.  We typically talk about Jesus being in our heart.  That's not a horrible way to say it actually, but what does it mean.


Sweet and Viola in Jesus Manifesto talk about implantation and impartation as the direction of someone who claims Jesus rather than just attempting to imitate him.


"The gospel is not the imitation of Christ; it is the implantation and impartation of Christ.  We are called to do more than mediate truth.  We are called to manifest Jesus' presence."

And back to Mary...

Mary is the only person who truly knows what it is like to host Jesus literally in their body.  She carried him for nine months.  She felt him grow and strengthen.  She hosted the nutrients for his body and the space for his development.  She felt him roll over, stretch, and kick.  She was full of Jesus' body and presence.  It is no wonder that his mother never left his side on the cross.


The people of God must find what it means to host Jesus in our bodies.  When we imitate Jesus we fall so short we give up trying to be like him and end up just trying to keep sight of him.  When we host Christ within our bodies we are more accountable for every action, thought, word, and feeling.  This isn't so we can constantly feel guilty, but so that we can always call on Jesus and rise to every occasion.  While we host Jesus we are not just trying to get a feel for what it is like to be Jesus (imitation) we are bring his presence to all that we encounter (impartation).  And in the end Jesus is implanted in us and while we walk this path and journey along Jesus and each of us are becoming one.  One with Him. One with one another.

I wanted to end with a larger quote from the book. 

"A French pastor was called to serve in a small French community.  At one of the first homes he visited, the wife was away, so he could only talk with the husband.  When the wife returned, she probed her husband about the nature of the new pastor's visit:
"What did he say?" she asked.
"He asked, 'Does Christ live here?"  the husband replied.  "He didn't really ask anything else.  Just, 'Does Christ live here?"
"Well, surely you told him that we are the church's biggest supporters."
"He didn't ask that," the husband repeated.  "He only asked, 'Does Christ live here?"
"Well you must have told him that we read our Bible and say our prayers every day."
"He didn't ask about that either.  He only asked, 'Does Christ live here?"
"Well, did you tell him that we attend his services every Sunday and sit in the front?"  the wife persisted.
"He didn't ask about that.  He only wanted to know, 'Does Christ live here?"
And that's all God wants to know. -Jesus Manifesto, Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola p. 73-74

Lately I've been reading Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola's Jesus Manifesto.  It is a fascinating read and one of the points they make has had me thinking for weeks.  It is the idea of imitation vs. implantation.  Most of my adult life I have struggled with the idea of following Jesus and exactly what that means.  Jesus was perfect in every way and if the call is to be perfect, then I can never do it.  If the call is to do exactly what Jesus did, then I'm pretty sure I'll always fall short. However, if the call is to host the presence of Christ within me an as Jesus incarnate implant myself into the world with Christ as my director, then together with others doing the same we can change the world.


I strongly believe that when Jesus commanded his disciples to "come, follow me" that he wasn't asking them to look just like him.  In fact I think that Jesus was more concerned with his disciples following God's will than worshipping his human body.  Now that's a big statement, so you might want to read it again.  If Jesus thought it was all about him, then he would have had no problem falling into Satan's temptation to prove how great and divine he was.  He would have had no problem allowing and even promoting that those he healed herald his name loudly.  He would have had not problem calling down the legions of angels to set things right on the crucifixion day.  However, what Jesus did, constantly did was use his human form to point to the divine reality; that it is about God and worship to Him.


Does this mean that Jesus wasn't divine?  No, of course he was divine!  Does this mean that we shouldn't follow the savior and Lord?  No, of course we should follow God's son!  Does it mean we shouldn't give up when we don't achieve perfection each day?  Yes!!  Jesus wants us to be caught up in the passion to bring people to the father.  Jesus wants us to help those along the path to join our journey to the divine.  Jesus wants us to implant ourselves into the world with him in our eyes, on our ears, on the tip of our tongue, drenched in his aroma, and at the tip of our fingers.  We need to know and embody Jesus Christ!


While we do this in the world around us may God deliver us from our own selfish ambitions, narcissitic tendencies, and boring gospel.  May we have ears to hear, eyes to see, and bold spirits.  


We need to rethink imitation and focus on implantation (next post)...otherwise we just end up being something less than the original.  And let's be honest...no one wants to join that journey!

Everyone wants a happy ending.  Whether it is the knight in shining armor, riding off in the sunset, or happily ever after.  What I've noticed in church recently is how we pounce on happy people to set them straight on the realities of life (as if they don't already know them).  We want to make sure that everyone knows that happiness is fleeting and being part of the Christ story involves suffering and resistance to evil.  And while those things are true, the fact is that God wants for us to be happy and joyous.  He does not desire for us to suffer, but understands that while we live in a broken world that suffering will occur.  God desires happiness.  Yes!, the kind of happiness that makes others sick, where the world is full of puppies and rainbows.  God longs for us to smile from ear to ear and make nieve bubbly comments with disregard to the atrocities that surround us.  However, when times fall hard, and they will, God wants us to fall back on joy.  This is the inner happiness that gives us our glow when happy and our perspective when we are otherwise.


The truth about happiness is that God wins in the end.  He has defeated Satan through the resurrection and therefore we should live happily ever after.  So next time the nieve, bubbly college freshmen approaches you with how wonderful life is because this boy she just met shares all the same likes as her, try not to dash her hopes and speak "too much" reality into her gum drop world.  And when the high school senior guy shares his determination that God has gifted him to play pro football, be gentle and supportive.  Happiness is a great thing, maybe one of the best of things.


God is an agent of Happiness and joy.  The truth is that with either won the same ending is true; We Win!  Death has been conquered!  The grave has no power!  Satan is fighting little battles only to already know that defeat is the outcome of his war.  In this vein we all receive a happy ending!

On September 11th, I was in Houston, TX working as a youth minister for a church in the Clear Lake area.  Before I left for the office that day I heard about the first tower being on fire and billowing smoke.  As I was driving to work (a less than 5 minute commute) I heard that a plane had flown into that tower.  By the time I reached work nothing had changed.  I went to my office thinking someone made a flying mistake and everything would be okay.  Then I was alerted that a second plane had hit the second tower and at this point I couldn't leave the news.  September 11, 2001 changed the life of our entire country and in some ways our entire world.  I'm not sure we have yet to come to grips fully with the devestation.  The day will forever be etched in my mind.  Tomorrow I will take different times during the day for silence and prayer.  Prayer for families, our country, forgiveness, comfort, and peace.  My we never forget, not so we can harbor hate, but so we can build the virtue of grace.

This morning I was getting the boys ready for school and talking about where we were going.  The boys go to a Mother's Day Out at a church.  Here was the conversation:


Boys:  We are going to church
Me:  No we are going to school.  Church is where we learn and worship Jesus, but school is where we practice following Jesus.
Boys:  We are going to school!
Me:  That's right, did Jesus hit his friends?
Boys:  No!
Me:  Then we shouldn't hit our friends at school either.  Did Jesus talk back to the teachers?
Boys:  No!
Me:  Do we talk back to our teachers?
Boys:  No!


I quit this line of questioning and example sharing after the talking back line.  Notice, I couldn't say they were right on talking back to his teachers.  Jesus actually did talk back to his teachers. I quit talking because this made me ponder whether or not the rules for our kids is about being nice, moral, and having good manners or is it about following Jesus.


No doubt Jesus was nice and no doubt Jesus was not so "nice".  Our goal shouldn't be to teach that good morals equal being a follower of Jesus, but living in his promises on his path is following Jesus.  This may mean standing up against false teaching.  This may mean speaking out against our own political bends.  This may mean challenging our churches to rise above the surface level applications of how to follow Jesus.  Just because you are a good person doesn't mean you are a kingdom person.  There is more to Jesus than following rules and being nice.  Jesus is about being radical against complacency!  Jesus is about transformation!  Jesus is about reaching everyone!  Jesus is about standing up about righteousness even when its unpopular!  Jesus is about passion!  When we begin to follow this Jesus we might look forward to gathering together with other Christians in order to walk the kingdom pathways.

This week and next I'm attending a class at ACU that will certify me to do pre-marital counseling using the tool "Prepare and Enrich."  I'm excited to learn this tool and counseling techniques to help those that are thinking of marriage (prepare) and those that have been married (enrich).  As I have completed the first week I'm really conscious of my own marriage and see that although Leah and I have a wonderfully healthy marriage we can always use reminders.


Sometimes our journey with God is the same.  Sometimes as we travel this Christian life we are totally trying to prepare ourselves for the journey that lies ahead.  What possible obstacles could occur?  How will we react when things are great?  How will we react when things are challenging?  Sometimes as we continue on in the journey we are in need of reminders or enriching our present walk with Christ.  How has my routine jaded my vision?  How can I move past complacency to more of Jesus?  How can I thrive rather than survive?


The journey with Jesus is much like a marriage.  Things are great at times and troubling at times.  Sometimes you want to leave.  Sometimes the love seems vacant.  And yet, the covenant to our spouse and the covenant to our Lord keeps us on the path and moving along.  Neither are always roses, but in the end we will have sustained an unmatchable relationship!