The Journey Blog

DAILY SELF-CHECK QUESTIONS

4/13/2020

It's easy to just go through our routines each day without much thought. Even—perhaps especially—in these most unusual of times, when routines may have been turned upside down, we can slip into movement without giving much thought to what we're doing. Or, more importantly, to how we're doing.

In the age of coronavirus, we're being encouraged to take our body's temperature in order to detect the first signs of fever and possible infection. Asking myself a few questions each day is a powerful way to take my soul's temperature, to check in on my spiritual, emotional, relational, and mental health.

Consider using these questions as a thermometer. There are others you could ask as well, but these are a good starting place.

These questions were part of a presentation given by Eileen McDargh, CEO of The Resiliency Group. Our recommendation of these questions should not be considered an endorsement of either Ms. McDargh or The Resiliency Group by The Journey Church.

Making the Most of Easter

4/11/2020

It’s doubtful that any of us have experienced an Easter quite like this one. A day that normally sees church buildings fuller than any other Sunday of the year will, this year, see only empty seats, a lone pastor, and a camera. And millions of people accustomed to crowding those church buildings will this year sit at home on couches and easy chairs, around the dining room table, or even still in bed, watching that pastor on a TV, computer, tablet, or phone.

As you consider how, where, and even whether to participate, allow me to offer some thoughts about how to engage in ways that will be meaningful for you not only spiritually, but emotionally, physically, mentally, and relationally. (These are especially true for Easter, but important for any Sunday.)

Start the day as normally as possible. Get out of bed, shower, shave, get dressed, put on makeup. Whatever your normal Sunday routine is—or your normal Easter Sunday routine—follow that tomorrow. Maybe you didn’t get a new Easter dress this year, but put on your Easter best.
If you don’t have a church you normally attend, look around today and make sure you know how to participate with their service tomorrow.
Be ready. Have your family together when the service is scheduled to begin. Have a Bible available, whether that’s a Bible app on your phone or printed Bible.
Engage fully. Sing along. When someone says “He is risen!”, respond with the traditional, “He is risen, indeed!” Stand when you’re invited to stand, kneel when invited to kneel, pray when a prayer is offered. Want to say “Amen” or “Praise the Lord”? Type it in the comments!
Stay focused. Don’t try to multitask. Don’t get up to check the roast or refill your coffee.
If the church is going to share in communion (aka the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist), participate according to that church’s tradition. Have some bread, and either juice or wine, ready.
Participate expectantly! God shows up in power when his people gather to worship. He will show up in power even when we can only gather virtually, from the relative safety and comfort of our own homes.

In these very unexpected days, God’s Word is true, his promise is faithful, his presence is real.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

GOOD FRIDAY...

4/10/2020

The night had been brutal. A sacred meal with friends had been anything but the pleasant celebration of remembrance and celebration we imagine. Instead, it had been solemn and heavy, Jesus’ words pointing forward to doom, not back to the rescue from slavery. He’d practically had to spell it out for them and still they didn’t understand, arguing instead over which of them was greatest while another—gone long before he left—slipped away into the dark to set up the fateful garden arrest.

Throughout the long, cold, spring night, Jesus had been paraded from one corner of the city to another to endure half-hearted questioning from politicians and angry tirades from the religious leaders who were supposed to be shepherding Israel. Soldiers mocked, beat, and spit on him. The crowds that mere days before had shouted “Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!” now cried “Crucify! Crucify!”
And where were his friends? Where were the men and women who’d followed him so closely for three years? The disciples who’d sat at his feet, clung to his every word, walked hundreds of miles at his side? They were nowhere to be found. Only Peter had dared come close…yet before the pink rays of the morning sun had risen above the Jordan valley, even Peter had angrily denied him...not once, but three times.
And so here Jesus stood, battered, bruised, alone in an angry sea of voices that wanted him dead.

And here we sit today, feeling alone; feeling, perhaps, emotionally battered, psychologically bruised, from the isolation we’ve had to endure these past weeks.
How quickly we want to shake off the suggestion that our isolation is anything like his. But maybe it’s more similar than we imagine. And maybe there’s more that will come from this time than anything we could hope for.
On this day ironically called “Good Friday,” we have hope only because we know what happens next; we know about the empty tomb and Jesus risen and the celebration that that will bring. But that first Friday seemed anything but good, and today for us seems empty of anything good—and yet….

There can be no resurrection without death. So today, I wonder: what needs to die in order for you to see resurrection? What death today will God use to bring you into new life on the other side of the empty tomb?
Sit with that question today, and gaze on the vision of Jesus suffering and dying to bring you life.

MAUNDY THURSDAY: CHOOSE WORSHIP

4/9/2020

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked.
Matthew 26:6–8 (NIV; see also Mark 14:1-10, Luke 7:36-50, and John 12:1-11)

The four gospel writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—each brought their own unique perspective to telling the story of Jesus’ life, and so there are many differences in what they say. Not disagreements; just differences. Each writes for a different purpose, each writes for a different audience, each emphasizes different aspects of the story.

Because of those unique perspectives, whenever we find something shared across all four gospels, we need to sit up and take notice. And on this day—in these last hours before Jesus will be arrested, tried, and crucified—we notice Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet, in the home of a leprous Pharisee.

Everything about the scene seems wrong: Jesus and his disciples are in the home of a Pharisee—a religious sect that’s never been particularly friendly to Jesus. The Pharisee, Simon, is—or at least was—a leper … and therefore is—or at least was—an outsider. The “social distancing” we are experiencing today doesn’t hold a candle to what a 1st century leper endured! And sitting at Jesus’ feet, in the place reserved for disciples, is a woman. That should astound us, because in the Jewish world view, a woman couldn’t be the disciple of a rabbi. Apparently Jesus had a different world view.

According to Luke, this unnamed and very out of place woman had “lived a sinful life.” He offers no elaboration, just leaves it to our imagination. John—always concerned about relationships and people—gives the woman a name: Mary. Sister to Martha and Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. In fact, John tells us all three siblings were there: Martha serving (as always!); Lazarus and Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet.

And then there’s the crash of pottery as Mary—sinful, forgiven, devoted Mary—breaks open a bottle of ridiculously expensive perfume and pours the whole thing over Jesus’ head and feet in an act of anointing that makes no sense to us today. But in that home on that day, it made sense to two people: Jesus and Mary. Of course, everyone else in the room saw only dollar signs; the perfume, we’re told, cost a year’s wages! Can you imagine?

And so here we are today, faced with a choice: We know resurrection is just a few days away. But today … will you choose to worship Jesus? Or will your attention be diverted by the cares of the world, the lagging economy, the fears of illness or uncertainty?

Today… choose worship.

HOLY WEDNESDAY: SILENT STILLNESS

4/8/2020

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
It’s Wednesday of Holy Week. The interesting thing about that last week of Jesus’ life is that in all the gospels, there’s nothing written about what Jesus did on Wednesday. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday we can track with. Thursday & Friday are chock-full of the culminating events of Jesus’ ministry: the Last Supper, his arrest and mock trial, the crucifixion….

But Wednesday? Nothing. Silence. No temples being cleared. No fig trees cursed. No throw-downs with the religious leaders. (Yet.) Nothing.

So what can learn from that? What profound spiritual truth can we apply to our lives? Well, maybe it’s just this:

Even on our quiet days—days when nothing is planned, there’s nothing to do, there’s nothing happening that’s worth writing home about—even on those days, God is still present, God is still moving, God is still....

And because God is still all of those things, we can be … just … still.

And so in this unusual week before a most unusual Easter Sunday, we prepare differently for a celebration that will look different. And since we’re all in something of a pause in life right now, I invite you today to simply pause … be still. Rest.

Holy tuesday: of faith and fig trees

4/7/2020

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
—Mark 11:12–14 (NIV)

Matthew and Mark both record a strange and confusing event on the Tuesday before Jesus was crucified.

Walking the 2 miles or so from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus gets hungry. He probably hadn’t had breakfast and the last donut shop was half a mile back. But up ahead he sees a fig tree in full leaf and his stomach starts to rumbling as he anticipates biting into a nice, juicy fig.
At least that’s what you and I would think. But there’s something different going on here, and Mark gives us a clue: “it wasn’t the season for figs.”
But it’s what happens next that confuses us: Jesus curses the tree, and it withers. (Matthew tells us that right away; Mark holds us in suspense for a few verses!)
It kind of makes you think that Jesus must have just woken up on the wrong side of bed, or he was stressed and grumpy or something. I mean, why would Jesus be surprised that a fig tree doesn’t have any figs when it’s not even the right season for them?
Right after this, Jesus talks to his disciples about faith. “If you have faith,” he says, “you can tell this mountain to throw itself into the sea … and it will! You just have to believe in God, without doubting.”
WHAT? What does a fig-less fig tree have to do with faith?

Either right before the fig-tree episode (if you’re looking at Matthew 21) or right in the middle of it (in Mark 11), we read of Jesus angrily kicking out of the temple all those people who’ve turned it into a veritable flea market.

Here’s what I think is going on, and how the temple incident and the fig-tree episode are connected:
The temple is a place where faith is learned and begins to be lived out; but the money changers and the lamb-sellers have turned it into a business. While they may once have served a practical need for the truly faithful, it had devolved into mere show: the lambs being sold no longer represented sacrifice, but mere convenience.
And the fig tree? Well, on fig trees, normally the leaves and the fruit would appear at the same time. So the leaves were an indication of life…but on that tree, there was no life; it was just a show.

How often in our lives do we do things for show, when there’s really no life—no faith—behind the show? Maybe going to church is that for you. Or showing up for Bible study. Maybe it’s giving or serving … that flows not from a heart of gratitude and faith, but a sense of obligation.
This week … this “holy” week—and especially this most unusual of holy weeks … all maybe, this is God’s way of getting your attention, my attention, our attention; maybe he’s saying to us, “let’s quit the show. Let’s have real, powerful, believing, mountain-moving faith.”
Let’s sit with that today. What commerce does Jesus need to rid from your life? What false signs of “life”? Ask God to replace those with the gift of faith.

Holy week devotional: Monday

4/6/2020

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” (Mark 11:15-17, NIV)

It was Passover week—a time of anticipation and celebration in the Jewish world—and Jerusalem was the center of activity. Think Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The inns were full, the streets were crowded, the city was alive as at no other time in the year.
And Jesus steps into this milieu of noise and bustle, steps into the temple and finds … not peace and prayer and worship, but the cacophony of commerce, the bustle of banking … the bleating of sheep and cooing of doves. It looked and felt and smelled more like the Mother Lode Fair than the House of God.

And Jesus breaks onto the scene, turns off the stereo, interrupts the party … and cries out: “Wait! Hold it! This is my Father’s House, and it is to be called a house of prayer for all nations!”

And 2000 years later we find our own celebrations interrupted, our anticipation turned to anxiety, our churches emptied. And this year, perhaps more than any other in our experience, we need to hear the words of Jesus reminding us that we are to be known not only by our love, but by prayer.

You are the temple of God: you, individually; and you, collectively, are God’s temple. You are to be called a house of prayer for all nations.

And so this week, in this new normal, would you join me in prayer … for our community, our state, our nation; for Europe and Africa, for Asia and Australia, for North and South America. Join me in praying for the church of Jesus Christ around the world, to be a light to all nations. Join me in praying for healing—not just physical healing, but more importantly, for spiritual healing. Pray that this week—this holiest of weeks in the church’s calendar—millions of people would be drawn to the healing good news of Jesus Christ.

Better for it

4/2/2020

This morning I was reading in Isaiah 38, where King Hezekiah of Judah got sick and the prophet Isaiah told him to get his affairs in order, because he was going to die. So King Hez prayed. Interestingly, he didn't pray to be healed, just asked God to remember his faithfulness and his wholehearted devotion to God. Then God gave him fifteen more years of life—and a pretty incredible sign to confirm that promise.
But here's what stuck out to me. Later, after the king had recovered from his illness, he wrote some stuff in his journal. Some lament, a few questions, praise to God. And this line:
"Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish."
Wow! There's no indication that the terminal illness was to judge him for any sin; nothing to suggest that God was trying to teach him something or get his attention or anything like that. I think he just got sick. Bad. Then prayed. And God was merciful and healed him and extended his life.
But still Hezekiah looked back at that experience and said, Something good came out of it. I learned something. I'm a better man than I was before...because of it.

We're experiencing some weird, scary, uncertain times. Some are sick, or have sick friends or family. Some are dying, or will die. And I just wonder: how might I be better on the other side of this thing? How might you be better? How might we be better as a church? What opportunities will this situation open for you?

That's my word for this situation: opportunity.

Thank you for letting me be your pastor!
—Pastor Randy