*A continuation of What Jesus Didn’t Do

At our Christmas Eve gathering this past year we read the Spencer poem that opened up this chapter. We were reminded of what Jesus left behind in relationships and power. We remembered the moment of an absolute switch in existence. The scenario would be like me deciding by my own volition to become an ant but to be honest that doesn’t really touch what Jesus did in becoming human. One moment he was everything; he was the bright and morning star. The next a poor child in a damp cave surrounded by unusual faces and sounds. He was human.

The opening lines of chapter two of Philippians and of this hymn quoted by Paul bring us to an often elusive part of what Jesus did in coming to planet earth and what we are called to be. The most complete of which is verse 7. We are told that Christ made himself nothing; he emptied himself. Reading this verse in the Greek you find the word kenos which means to take away the content or to deprive of power. Jesus gave up all that was heavenly to come and walk life the way we do. He who had control gave up control. Now let’s look for a moment at some key words & phrases from this passage. Maybe take a moment and stop to meditate on these verses and thoughts.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Value others above yourself.
Look after others interest and not your own.
In your relationships…
Have the attitude of Christ.
He emptied himself of power and the ability to control.
Even to the point of being submitted to the powers of this world

We will never completely understand the “Why’s?” of this life. But for some reason God ordered planet earth in a certain way. I’ve once heard this necessity of Jesus’ action explained in this way. On planet earth it appears that control/manipulation exist on one end of a paradigm and love/compassion on the other end. You have seen this. People who are generally controlling and manipulative are often not very loving and compassionate. On the other hand people who are loving and compassionate are not very controlling and manipulative. So, if you are an all-controlling God who can manipulate anything or anyone how do you truly love? To love, you must give up control and this is what Jesus does for you and me. To love us well, to show us who God is, to show us how we were created to live he emptied himself. To be his follower, to be like-minded we must as well.

To truly love, you must give up control.

As believers in not only the power of the work of Jesus but also in the work of Jesus we must learn to live by a different ethic. We must carry into our relationships the attitude of Jesus – the attitude of a servant. This is difficult because servants aren’t in control. We want to secure the future as best as we can. Jesus gave his life to a world where some would say yes and some would say no. He gave up control to submit to the will of the Father and we are called as Christians to submit as well.

Remember, the goal is to look like Jesus. There is no other person; there is no other model. This doesn’t mean that we completely give in and don’t stand up for what is right. Jesus often challenged those around him. Remember the “religious” people that he is speaking to are the chosen people of God. They are off course and he tells them often not what they want to hear but they need to hear.

Let us think through the Mark 10 story one more time.
Jesus saw the wealthy young man. Jesus loved him. Jesus spoke the truth to him. The truth was too much for him to handle.

There was no coercion, no arm-twisting, and no five-step process of revealing whom God was and why he needed to change. The young man was drawn to Jesus. Who knows? The appeal may have been Jesus’ works or it may have been Jesus’ teaching. What ever the appeal was, there was something different that brought him to Jesus. The messiah saw him. He LOVED him and he told him the truth. Beyond this you and I cannot control the actions of others.
Even harder still is when we want more for people than they want for themselves. But maybe the key is seeing and loving not in speaking and controlling. Jesus saw and loved first and the emptied out love was the driving force behind his words. The emptied out yet power filled loved was what led him from the cross to ask his Father to forgive those who had murdered him.
You may be part of a situation right now where you are seeing and speaking but love is missing. When you see Jesus, you see God control free and as a follower you are called to love in that manner. Theologian Miraslov Volf wrote on the idea of exclusion and embrace. While we are called to exclude (speak to or speak out against) that which is not in line with the heart of God, the goal in the end is embrace.

The twisted Sermon on the Mount at the beginning of this chapter didn’t happen because Jesus chose to honor the heart of the Father. Jesus moving to control the situation is to lower himself to the ways of the world. He would fall into same old patterns that never work. The end for the believer never justifies the means because every moment is divine and is an opportunity to model Christ like love. Jesus’ earthly power resided in his purity, his holiness, his difference from the world and his unwillingness to lower himself to earthly pitfalls. Our power lies in loving like Jesus.
Greg Boyd in his book The Myth of a Christian Nation lays out the ideas of power over and power under. In every interaction with people we have a choice to use one of these methods.

Power Over = Manipulation, Control, Power, Coercion, Violence
Power Under = Serving, Healing, Loving, Listening, Giving

From Jesus we see consistent modeling of the power under mentality. Jesus models this even to the point of giving his life as a ransom for creation and its inhabitants. Our real power comes from living and loving like Jesus. We will advance the kingdom and the principles of God not through force or coercion (power over) but through love and service (power under). The Gospel story is much easier to share when we are building or rebuilding someone’s than it is after we have destroyed it.

The Beauty of the Kingdom
We are powerless yet powerful. We carry a message of beauty and hope that the world doesn’t understand. Yes we are exiles here but the beauty of the kingdom of God is it works. It does not matter who is in charge; it doesn’t matter who is in control. You can be under a king, a president, a dictator or a chief. You can be part of a democracy, a republic, a dictatorship, or a socialist government. It simply doesn’t matter. Selfless love always works any time, any place.

So some thoughts to wrap up this chapter…
As long as you are in control, God can’t be.
To be what you were created to be you are going to have to give up control and let the King of the Universe work in and through you.
Your families, neighbors, friends and co-workers need you to love – control free.
If you don’t love, don’t speak.
Speech without love can be scary for everyone involved.
May you give up control so that you may truly love.

*A continuation of What Jesus Didn’t Do

At our Christmas Eve gathering this past year we read the Spencer poem that opened up this chapter. We were reminded of what Jesus left behind in relationships and power. We remembered the moment of an absolute switch in existence. The scenario would be like me deciding by my own volition to become an ant but to be honest that doesn’t really touch what Jesus did in becoming human. One moment he was everything; he was the bright and morning star. The next a poor child in a damp cave surrounded by unusual faces and sounds. He was human.

The opening lines of chapter two of Philippians and of this hymn quoted by Paul bring us to an often elusive part of what Jesus did in coming to planet earth and what we are called to be. The most complete of which is verse 7. We are told that Christ made himself nothing; he emptied himself. Reading this verse in the Greek you find the word kenos which means to take away the content or to deprive of power. Jesus gave up all that was heavenly to come and walk life the way we do. He who had control gave up control. Now let’s look for a moment at some key words & phrases from this passage. Maybe take a moment and stop to meditate on these verses and thoughts.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Value others above yourself.
Look after others interest and not your own.
In your relationships…
Have the attitude of Christ.
He emptied himself of power and the ability to control.
Even to the point of being submitted to the powers of this world

We will never completely understand the “Why’s?” of this life. But for some reason God ordered planet earth in a certain way. I’ve once heard this necessity of Jesus’ action explained in this way. On planet earth it appears that control/manipulation exist on one end of a paradigm and love/compassion on the other end. You have seen this. People who are generally controlling and manipulative are often not very loving and compassionate. On the other hand people who are loving and compassionate are not very controlling and manipulative. So, if you are an all-controlling God who can manipulate anything or anyone how do you truly love? To love, you must give up control and this is what Jesus does for you and me. To love us well, to show us who God is, to show us how we were created to live he emptied himself. To be his follower, to be like-minded we must as well.

To truly love, you must give up control.

As believers in not only the power of the work of Jesus but also in the work of Jesus we must learn to live by a different ethic. We must carry into our relationships the attitude of Jesus – the attitude of a servant. This is difficult because servants aren’t in control. We want to secure the future as best as we can. Jesus gave his life to a world where some would say yes and some would say no. He gave up control to submit to the will of the Father and we are called as Christians to submit as well.

Remember, the goal is to look like Jesus. There is no other person; there is no other model. This doesn’t mean that we completely give in and don’t stand up for what is right. Jesus often challenged those around him. Remember the “religious” people that he is speaking to are the chosen people of God. They are off course and he tells them often not what they want to hear but they need to hear.

Let us think through the Mark 10 story one more time.
Jesus saw the wealthy young man. Jesus loved him. Jesus spoke the truth to him. The truth was too much for him to handle.

There was no coercion, no arm-twisting, and no five-step process of revealing whom God was and why he needed to change. The young man was drawn to Jesus. Who knows? The appeal may have been Jesus’ works or it may have been Jesus’ teaching. What ever the appeal was, there was something different that brought him to Jesus. The messiah saw him. He LOVED him and he told him the truth. Beyond this you and I cannot control the actions of others.
Even harder still is when we want more for people than they want for themselves. But maybe the key is seeing and loving not in speaking and controlling. Jesus saw and loved first and the emptied out love was the driving force behind his words. The emptied out yet power filled loved was what led him from the cross to ask his Father to forgive those who had murdered him.
You may be part of a situation right now where you are seeing and speaking but love is missing. When you see Jesus, you see God control free and as a follower you are called to love in that manner. Theologian Miraslov Volf wrote on the idea of exclusion and embrace. While we are called to exclude (speak to or speak out against) that which is not in line with the heart of God, the goal in the end is embrace.

The twisted Sermon on the Mount at the beginning of this chapter didn’t happen because Jesus chose to honor the heart of the Father. Jesus moving to control the situation is to lower himself to the ways of the world. He would fall into same old patterns that never work. The end for the believer never justifies the means because every moment is divine and is an opportunity to model Christ like love. Jesus’ earthly power resided in his purity, his holiness, his difference from the world and his unwillingness to lower himself to earthly pitfalls. Our power lies in loving like Jesus.
Greg Boyd in his book The Myth of a Christian Nation lays out the ideas of power over and power under. In every interaction with people we have a choice to use one of these methods.

Power Over = Manipulation, Control, Power, Coercion, Violence
Power Under = Serving, Healing, Loving, Listening, Giving

From Jesus we see consistent modeling of the power under mentality. Jesus models this even to the point of giving his life as a ransom for creation and its inhabitants. Our real power comes from living and loving like Jesus. We will advance the kingdom and the principles of God not through force or coercion (power over) but through love and service (power under). The Gospel story is much easier to share when we are building or rebuilding someone’s than it is after we have destroyed it.

The Beauty of the Kingdom
We are powerless yet powerful. We carry a message of beauty and hope that the world doesn’t understand. Yes we are exiles here but the beauty of the kingdom of God is it works. It does not matter who is in charge; it doesn’t matter who is in control. You can be under a king, a president, a dictator or a chief. You can be part of a democracy, a republic, a dictatorship, or a socialist government. It simply doesn’t matter. Selfless love always works any time, any place.

So some thoughts to wrap up this chapter…
As long as you are in control, God can’t be.
To be what you were created to be you are going to have to give up control and let the King of the Universe work in and through you.
Your families, neighbors, friends and co-workers need you to love – control free.
If you don’t love, don’t speak.
Speech without love can be scary for everyone involved.
May you give up control so that you may truly love.

*The latest in a series of posts from a book idea that I was working on…All posts can be found under the category: What Jesus Didn’t Do.

Giving It Up
I have to be honest, friends who spend hours upon hours listening or watching news channels and stay frustrated or scared actually really frustrate me. They seem to be always mad at the government or certain leaders or have something to fret over but have very little time to spend in the yard with their kids. We need to unplug a little bit. The reality is that if we were more invested in our homes and our neighborhoods then in time the culture would change, but it takes time and effort. It is a lot easier to be mad and rant about an unreachable opponent than it is to love your neighbor or even your family. And what about the fear we are exhaling? Much of the fear and angst that we are inhaling we are exhaling on our family and friends. It’s all just way too much. Remember the most used phrase in the Bible: fear not.

A couple of years back I gave up watching TV news. It started with a Lenten journey but after the period of abstaining was up and I returned to the television, I noticed some things about what was coming through my TV. It all seemed so dark, so angry, and so intent on keeping me on edge. According to those little well dressed people on my screen there is always a threat of attack, there is always a new disease out there, there is always a tax out there, there is always a government leader who is lying, there was always someone who looked better than me and on and on it went. I just needed to be nervous (couched as alertness), to buy this product, to read this book, to listen to this person, to stay away from those people or support violent activity against these people. I watched for a few days and decided that it was all too much. I walked away from it. It may be one of the best moves I’ve ever made.

For some of you, I know that this is a ludicrous thought but I have made a decision. I can spend my time worrying about things I cannot control. I can live afraid. I can chase luxury, image or security through how I look or where I live or I can take that time and pour it into my wife and kids and neighbors. See I am a control freak. I have determined that I can have some control over what I can see and those that I can talk to and hug or pat on the back and from what I see in the scriptures, they are to get my attention.

I have decided that for the time I have left I will work to love those in that circle. I’m done with worrying about what is out on the periphery. I want to be done with fear. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think about issues or pray about them. At the appropriate times, I vote my conscious but it does mean that if it comes down to being afraid or being angry because someone else thinks I should be or kicking around the yard with the kids…you’ll find me out back, not in front of the tube or listening to the latest propaganda.

A Good Trick
What if all of this worrying about the greater good of America is a subtle trick of the enemy to keep us from engaging relationally. There will always be things to worry about but you only get one shot at your family and maybe only one shot at that conversation or at that chance to serve. Maybe just maybe we need to examine where our energies lie and reinvest them in a way that looks more like Jesus.
This is hard. We battle needing to know, needing to feel secure, needing to be in control. As a Christian you are never promised security. You were never promised a country. You were reborn into exile, into pilgrimage. When we look around America there don’t seem to be a lot of exiles or pilgrims but a whole lot of prospectors and homesteaders. Upon following Jesus you gave up home and country. So, really think for a moment. Where do your allegiances lie?
Don’t be naive; there is a very really battle for your allegiance – a steady battle for your heart and mind. As a follower of Christ when it comes to having, getting or being in control or loving like Jesus did, you must choose Jesus.

There is a conflict. A battle for what it means to look like Jesus. We are in a battle for who is really in control of our lives. We want to know and secure what comes next but the reality is no matter what we do or what we buy, we will never be in complete control of the future. We simply cannot control the unknown. We have a choice. We can live in fear or doubt about ourselves or we can take the posture of Jesus and do our best to steward a future that is kinder to not only us but those around us.