Okay, it’s not Monday morning, actually as I’m writing this it’s almost Tuesday morning.  But I decided — at least for awhile — to give my blog a bit of consistency.  So it’s Monday Morning Quarterback.  For those not up on football lingo a Monday Morning Quarterback is “one who critiques from a position of hindsight.”  So on Monday’s it will be MMQ — Monday morning reflections on the weekend.  So here goes…

1) We had some technical difficulties all over the place.  Calvary Grays Woods had set-up problems.  Midtown 9am didn’t get a video — so Pastor Stac ended up preaching.  Calvary Classic had some projection difficulties.  Two thoughts on all of this.  First, our Tech Crews do a fantastic job!  They are like the offensive line, you only notice them when there is a problem and most often we don’t notice them.  Secondly God is worthy of our best, but he doesn’t need it.  Technical glitches can’t keep God from speaking to you, if you want to listen.

2) Had more comments than usual this weekend about God at work in people’s hearts.  Resurrection changes everything.  Keep praying for God to settle that message deep in our hearts.

3) I spoke at Grays Woods yesterday for the first time in weeks.  It is always a joy to see God at work out there.  People I don’t even know coming up and saying hi.  They are reaching their neighbors for Christ and all of us can say, “Go God!” to that.

4) Leadership Advance 2011 was announced at a number of the gatherings.  This time around Leadership Advance will run from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.  That means that it will be more convenient for non-student adults.  If you are interested, click .

5) Coach Paterno’s 400.  I need not say anymore.

6) Resurrection Changes Everything.  If you were not with us this weekend, we discussed “leaving the in-between life.”  I closed with these words.

Some of you this weekend, you have experienced resurrection. But it was a while ago, and over the course of the years, you’ve done everything you could to starve it out. You’ll go for weeks without feasting on God’s word. You play with sin like it’s a carnival ride instead of russian roulette. Can you remember what it was like in those moments when the life of God coursed through your heart? Don’t you want that back?

Some of you are at least slightly interested in God’s offer of life — but what you are looking for is plastic surgery more so than resurrection. You still want to hang on to certain parts of your life that you think you can manage — just give God the parts you can’t — make it look good God. Won’t work. You’re dead. Resurrection only works if you give him the whole dead thing.

Finally some of you this weekend are so ready for the life God has for you. You are so tired of the in-between. God’s been at work pouring out grace — kissing yr soul. But you are unsure…there is something in you that wants what you have heard about — wants life unrestrained. But you have doubts.

Listen to me — this dissatisfaction within you is grace. God has already kissed your soul. To even want to believe, to even want to know God is evidence of God’s grace poured out for your resurrection.

Whether your faith is great or seems small, simpy exercise faith, let your faith grab God’s grace. Commit yourself to him in the degree that you can and He will come. Take a step of faith in the darkness. Be open to new possibilities. Go back to Galilee.  Don’t let fear have the final word. Let the resurrection change everything.

That’s my prayer for us this week.  Let the resurrection change everything.  If you would like to listen to the whole message — go to

If you have attended Calvary for long, you have heard me say at least once or twice, “I love baptisms.”  I love them because people cheer.  I love them because of what they signify, the story of the life and death and life of Jesus played out in our lives.  I love them because they are times of deep joy.  Below is one baptism that I particularly loved.

Chris is a special young man.  In 2000 he was baptized.  He continues to follow Jesus.  Enjoy it.

I suppose it happens every couple of years, but for some reason it just occurred to me this year… Halloween and Elections are fairly close together.  Was that planned?  Or just some sort of cosmic irony?  Well anyway here are my top seven reasons why Halloween and the Elections seem to go well together.

1) When everyone is wearing masks, it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

2) I’m not sure whether the goal is to scare people or give away free candy.

3) If you want to get Christians riled up, just make a declarative statement about either one.

4) Probably about the same percentage of people in our community are involved in both.

5) In the weeks leading up to both events, TV is filled with attempts to frighten us.  Just not sure which is more fear-filled, the political ads or Jason #7.

6) Both events give me a stomach-ache on the day after.

7) I’m not sure that involvement in either, or lack of involvement in either, will ultimately heal a heart, transform a life, or change a community.

So let me finish this post by asking this question, “How do we make politics less scary?” Here are some possibilities…

What if we would only vote for the candidates who exhibit a measure of kindness?  You can fake integrity, a little harder to fake kindness.  Obviously the virtue of kindness would greatly reduce the negative campaigns.

What if we made a commitment to never vote a straight party ticket?  Christians should be the least party-ized people in politics.  Study the issues, study the people, pray about it and then vote.  Or don’t vote.

What if we were to keep in mind that the Bible says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”  Proverbs 21:1 Doesn’t matter who sits in the oval office of one of the greatest nations on the earth, God is still in control. Perhaps this would lead us to fulfill one of the key Biblical commands concerning government — pray for those in authority over you.

Having said all that… If a person, fully committed to Jesus, striving to live and love like Jesus, is living out their calling on Halloween night or election night, we cannot begin to image all that God could accomplish through them as they seek FIRST the KINGDOM OF GOD.  That’s really the issue, what kingdom are you building, who is directing your calling, and who has first place in your heart.  I don’t care if you are republican or democrat.  I don’t care if you give out candy or darken your lights.  I don’t even care if you wear a mask on Halloween night…if you care deeply about Jesus and the Kingdom of God, you will make a difference.  If Halloween has first place in your heart, you won’t be any more effective at changing the world, than you are if politics has first place in your heart.

It’s interesting how often the Bible associates “kindness” with God. Now to be certain, it also associates words like holiness and fear, even wrath. But for this moment I want to ponder the power of kindness.

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche — who is well known for his “God is dead” philosophies — argued that kindness and love are the “most curative herbs and agents in human intercourse”.

In Buddhism, one of the Ten Perfections (Paramitas) is Mettā, which is usually translated into English as “loving-kindness”. Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama wrote “my religion is kindness…”

The Talmud claims that “deeds of kindness are equal in weight to all the commandments.”

In Christian circles kindness is often seen as one of the seven virtues which battle against the seven deadly sins. When you read the apostle Paul’s great definition of love in I Corinthians 13, Paul makes many statements about what love does, doesn’t do, and isn’t, but he makes only one statement about what love IS. “Love is patient and kind.”

Perhaps Paul’s insight into the connection between love and kindness might help us understand the following: In 2003, D.M. Buss reported on a study of 37 cultures around the world. Sixteen thousand subjects were asked about their most desired traits in a mate. For both sexes, the first preference was kindness (the second was intelligence).

So here are a few words from Scripture about God’s kindness…

Titus 1:3-5 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us…

Romans 2:4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

In another translation of the Bible, that last phrase is written as… It’s the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. Do we live our lives as though God’s kindness has led us and would led others to repentance?  Random acts of kindness might not be so random in God’s eyes…his plan for changing the world involves kindness.

Now let’s think about that for a moment…what would happen…

• – To your marriage if you practiced kindness today?
• – If you did three acts of kindness every day at work?
• – To the political system in America if we only elected kind politicians?
• – If our church was characterized by kindness?
• – To cyber-bullying if a pre-requisite for a fb account was kindness?

Last weekend — Halloween weekend — Calvary was kind in the community.  Our Calvary College Connection gave away free hot dogs.  Click HOT DOGS for a full story of that.  Our Third Place group went prayer-walking downtown, gave inebriated people rides home, gave away candy, prayed with people, and was just kind.  Then our Calvary Warriors Mark site gave away coats.

And when people asked, “Why are you doing this?”  The common refrain was, “We just want to show you in a practical way, that God loves you.”  A ride home and God.  A free winter coat and God.  A hot dog and God.

God’s kindness — to receive it and give it today — that’s a worthy goal for all of us.

This might be one of the most controversial posts that I write — at least in some Christian circles.  Here it is… I’m ready to get controversial…  I like Halloween.  One of my favorite local pastors — Paul Grabil — put something on his facebook status about Christians and Halloween and within a day or two it had 194 comments.  So let me tell you why I like Halloween — 8 reasons.

1) Halloween has it’s origins in the Celtic festival of Samhain.  Samhain was the day marking the entrance into the darker half of the year (less sun) AND the day when the border between this world and the otherworld was at its most thin.  This thinness allowed for the passing through of supernatural beings — both evil and good.  I think it’s good to have at least one day when we are reminded that the walls between this world and the heavenly realms (Paul’s term) are thin — actually always thin.  In fact the Bible suggests that there are no walls and we walk, live, and love in the midst of spiritual battle, every day.

2) I like free chocolate.

3) There is no other day in the year where my neighbors come by and introduce themselves to me.  What an amazing opportunity to pray for every family on my block!

4) We always have chocolate left over.

5) Halloween — perhaps because subconsciously people are more aware of the spiritual nature of life, just like at Christmas? — gives an amazing opportunity for outreach.  This year Calvary had a group of college students who set up a station in Beaver Canyon and handed out 300 free hotdogs.  Every time someone asked, “Why are you doing this?” they said, “We just wanted an opportunity to tell you God loves you.”  Then we had another group of 20-somethings who went downtown and prayerwalked throughout the bar-district.  They prayed for people, gave drunk people rides home, and had multiple conversations about God.  Then our Warriors Mark crew set up a station in Warriors Mark, right across from some low-income housing and gave away winter coats.  I love Halloween!

6) Target has great Post-Halloween candy sales.

7) I enjoy a good scare.  I like to give-em and I even like to receive-em.  I know I’ve got a routine going in this post — holy reason followed by candy reason — which means that this one should be a holy reason.  I know “God has not given us a spirit of fear.”  But then again “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” But honestly I’m not trying to put this one in the “holy reason” category, I just think we live such comfortable lives that a little fear now and then is good for us.

8) Yep.  Chocolate.  I mean think about it.  Where else but America would we make free chocolate a national holiday?

Now I know, it would be far easier to follow the ways of Jesus, if he had said, “They will know you are my followers by the fact that you do not Halloween-ie.” But he didn’t, He said that our mark would be love. So until one of my theologian friends can find an injunction against Halloween — in the original languages — I’m there. And I’ll keep working on the love part.

A couple of interesting blogs on Halloween: Ben Witherington and

Can you imagine the courage it took to love so deeply that you would walk the way of the cross? The cross unleashes courageous love…isn’t that a love that you need to know today?

• – The kind of love that will go to bat for you if when it costs…
• – The kind of love that won’t walk away when it’s hard and scary…
• – The kind of love that will even be willing to die for you…

There are a lot of images, a lot of metaphors in the Bible that are used to describe the love of God…

Psalm 103:11 is an astronomy metaphor… “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.”  Some of you star gazing, astronomy loving, physics type people just perked up. You’re mentally getting out your telescope and calculations. 186 miles a second for a year to get a light year…multiplied by 63,000 to get to the closest star…and you’re thinking wow… that’s some love…as high as the heavens are above the earth.

Then there is the nursing mother metaphor that comes from the OT and the NT…an image that is somewhat harder for me to relate to…except that my wife has nursed all four of our children…and there is just something in the eyes of a nursing mother that expresses an almost incomprehensible depth of love.

Then there is the Father image…Psalm 103:13, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”  Few things thrill me more than those moments when I encounter head-on that stirring of father-love in my heart. When I get a “I’m-not-looking-for-anything-from-you-no-holds-barred-hug from one of my girls.” Or to see tears in my guys eyes — okay they were younger then — when we were saying goodbye at the airport.

Maybe none of those images of God’s love really grab you…but how about the metaphor of a friend. John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one would lay down his life for his friends.” The extreme love of our friend Jesus gave him the courage to die for us. You can doubt a lot of things about God…but when Jesus went to the cross…he settled forever my question…”Are you my friend? Do you love me?”

That’s a love I need to know. I need to be able to love like that but I need to be loved like that.  In the permanent record of his words, God has told us time and time again that he loves us… and he has used a variety of illustrations in the hopes that one of those stories would resonate with the deepest chords of your heart.

But every story, every illustration, every metaphor was simply a pre-view of the real deal…the cross.  The cross is God’s love unleashed, let loose in the world.  Let God’s love loose in your heart.

I hesitate to blog this one, but my radical side overcame my hesitant side.  :)  Watch this commercial — it consistently makes me laugh — but think of church.

Paul uses a number of different metaphors for the church.  The church is a family.  The church is a body.  The church is the bride of Christ.  The church is the army of God.  If you think about it there is a bit of a difference between those metaphors.  For example the family metaphor brings out a bit more of the compassionate side, perhaps the army of God metaphor hits sacrifice a bit more, but they are all valid.

But then I’ve been studying the cross lately.  When I ponder the cross and think of the American evangelical church… I wonder if I don’t spend a bit too much time in Mamby Pamby Land.  There are times when we all need a compassionate listening ear, but aren’t there also times when we need our Commander-in-Chief to kick our butts out of Mamby Pamby Land (MPL)?  Like…

• “Oh I don’t like it when they always ask me to give my money to the poor.”  MPL
• “Why can’t they sing the songs that I like…the way I like them?”  MPL
• “That pastor’s sermon just don’t feed me.” MPL

When Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me…” He was calling us to come and die — Nothing Mamby Pamby about that!

Words that Bless.

Sister Mrosla remembers her first teaching experience. There were 34 third graders in her class in Morris, Minnesota and all of those filled with youthful bounce. Sister Mrosla vividly recalls one young man named Mark who talked incessantly. He was handsome and in every way except the constant chattering, he was very well behaved. Finally in total frustration one afternoon, Sister Mrosla issued an ultimatum, she instantly wished she had left unsaid, “If you open your mouth one more time, Mark, I’m going to tape it closed.”

As you can imagine, it wasn’t two minutes later before another student shouted out, “Mark is talking; Mark is talking.”

Since the punishment had been stated in front of the class, Sister Mrosla was stuck. She walked to Mark, the room had a deep hush, she tore off two pieces of masking tape and made a big x over his mouth. Then she returned to her desk. As she glanced at Mark to see how he was doing, he winked at her and soon she was chuckling and then laughing out loud. Pretty soon the entire class cheered as she walked back to Mark’s desk and removed the tape. His first words after the tape came off were: “Thank you for correcting me, sister.”

Several years passed and Mark found himself in Sister Mrosla’s class again, now in junior high, and she had gone on to teaching math. At one point she could sense that it was the time of the year when students were getting on each other’s nerves. The math principles were difficult and friction seemed to permeate the room.

“Take out a sheet of paper,” she told the class at the end of that trying week, “and write down the names of each student in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. I now want you to think of the nicest thing you can say about each of your classmates and write that down beneath their name.”

Sister Mrosla had the class take the rest of the period to finish the assignment, and that weekend she listed each child’s name on a separate sheet of paper and then compiled everything positive that everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday she gave each child his or her list. While everyone seemed pleased, no one ever mentioned those papers in class again.

Years passed and one-day Sister Mrosla was returning from a vacation. Her parents met her at the airport. As they were driving home, her father cleared his throat and said, “Mark Eklund’s family called last night. You know, he was the one in your class that you said was so gregarious?” “Really, ” she said, “I haven’t heard from him in several years. I wonder how Mark is.” Her father responded quietly, “Mark has been killed in Vietnam. His funeral is tomorrow and his parents would like you to attend.”

The church was packed and the service was a tribute to a fallen hero. But afterwards something totally unexpected happened. Mark’s mother and father came up to Sister Mrosla and said, “We want to show you something.” Opening his wallet, the father pulled out a wad of papers to show her. “They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it. He carefully revealed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded, and refolded many times. The papers were the ones on which sister Mrosla listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates said about him that day in junior high.

It was just words, but he carried it around all his life — like one of his greatest treasures — because words matter. They have power, power to shape for good, power to lift up, power to give hope. It’s called a blessing. When you give one to your son or daughter, you are calling them to their future. You don’t know if it’s just a word, because you don’t know how much those words might matter in someone’s life.

Who do you need to bless? What do you need to say? Don’t leave those words unsaid, they matter far too much.

Cussing, Cursing or Blessing.

In a recent blog post on cussing Christians, Caroline Ferdinandsen writes, “It used to be that if a Christian dropped an F-bomb, its mushroom cloud and subsequent radiation would kill every evangelical in a ten mile radius. Nowadays, the cussing Christian is an old issue; I’ve almost made myself irrelevant by writing an essay about it.”

To be honest I don’t get uptight about cussing Christians.  Well I guess that depends on what you put in the cussing category.  For example, at least a couple of times in the last couple of years, I used the word “crap” in a sermon — I think I got more comments when I used the word “sucks.”  I grew up on a farm where words about excrement were fairly common, in fact the one that starts with “s” was a favorite of my grandma’s — and she loved Jesus with all her heart.  Then there is the whole realm of euphemisms — from gosh to darn to Jiminy Cricket, from frick to frack to fudge.  I don’t get too excited about those either.  I’m not a fan, but I don’t get too worked up when I hear it.

On the other hand, if I’m in a conversation with someone who drops the f-bomb as often as my “like” kids “like” say “like”…that gets really old and I either have to walk away or ask them to try another word.  The same is true when I’m in a movie that uses the name of Jesus more often than you hear it in a church on Sunday morning.  In other words, I get a bit more passionate about refraining from words that trivialize sex or God.

But here’s the deal…there is something far more damaging than a cussing Christian.  It’s a cursing Christian.  Yes there is a difference.  A curse is a wish or a prayer that evil or harm will befall someone or something.  In other words, a curse is what we do when we declare something good to be something. The classic form of a “cussing curse” is something like “God damn you/it,” or “Go to hell.”  When a Christian utters those words, isn’t he or she defiling the very heart of Jesus?

Now hold on to this for a moment and don’t simply tune me out when I ask this next question.  My friend Ben Henderson got me thinking about this.  He’s a communications instructor, so words matter to him as well.  Here is the question:  Why is it so common in next-gen communication to call that which is good, something that is bad?  Does it matter when my sons describe something that is good with the words, sick, nasty, bad, or wicked?

Now granted I have an ulterior motive, I always find myself asking my kids questions like, “Did you mean sick as in that’s bad or sick as in that’s good?”  And when they respond, “I meant sick as in that’s bad.” Then I have to ask, “Did you mean bad as in that’s good or bad as in that’s bad.”  “No Dad sick and bad both mean good.”  “Ah,” I respond, “and what then does good mean?  So I’m stuck wondering why can’t we just call good good? And what do we call bad?  And is it good to name that which is good, as wicked or nasty?  Is it wise to call that which is good, that which is bad?  Ah therein lies the question…  “Is that a curse?”

I’m not sure, but at the very least doesn’t it lean toward deceptive and if words matter and we worship the one who is called The Word, do we want to lean into the deceptive?  Now I know, every generation has it’s slang — mine did, in fact we’re the ones who started using the word “like” as punctuation — so maybe it’s a bit unfair for one generation to judge another’s slang.  On the other hand, I believe it was my generation that first started using “bad” to mean “cool.”  So…not judging…just pondering…

Because words matter.

This weekend at Calvary — as we continue to make our way through Mark’s Gospel — it’s all about the cross. I am arrested by the cross of Christ.  All four Gospels record the passion of Jesus, providing significant detail about the enormous suffering and torture He endured. Other Christian, Jewish, and Roman sources provide additional insight about scourging and execution on a cross. Those who study the details of crucifixion recognize that Mel Gibson — producer of The Passion — may have been right, when he responded to the question, “Why didn’t you hold back on the graphic violence of the cross?” with the words, “I did hold back.”

Crucifixion, which probably began with the Persians, was perfected by the Romans as a form of torture designed to produce a slow death with maximal pain and suffering.  It was one of the most humiliating and cruel forms of execution. Roman law protected Roman citizens from crucifixion, except perhaps in the case of the desertion of a soldier. Cicero wrote, “The mere idea of the cross should never come near the bodies of Roman citizens. It should never pass through their thoughts, eyes or ears.”

Today the cross is a common thing.  We wear it around our necks and have pictures of it in our dining rooms.  But it was not until the 4th century that the cross became a symbol of faith. As C.S. Lewis points out, “The crucifixion did not become common in art until all who had seen a real one had died off.”

Those who point out that the Bible does not go into a great depth of description of the horrific violence of a crucifixion, simply don’t remember the people in Jesus day knew the suffering that went with the
crucifixion.  They didn’t need to be reminded.

Survival on the cross lasted from 3 or 4 hours to 3 or 4 days, depending on the severity of the scourging.  Scourging usually preceded a Roman execution. The normal instrument was a short whip called a flagellum. It was composed of several single or braided leather thongs of variable lengths, in which small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones were tied at intervals. The man was stripped, usually completely naked, and his hands were tied to a post. The back, buttocks, and legs were beaten or flogged, either by two soldiers called lectors or by one soldier who alternated his position from one side to the other. The scourging was intended to punish and weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death.

Because this was a Roman scourging, we cannot be certain that the number of lashes was limited to 39, which was the limit set by Jewish law. The severe scourging, with its intense pain and appreciable blood loss, most probably left Jesus in a pre-shock state. Moreover, hematidrosis had rendered his skin particularly tender.  So He hung there, slowly suffocating while enduring intense unfathomable pain…and then he died.

If you watched the movie, The Passion you have images in mind of this broken and battered Jesus.  It’s almost difficult for me to bring that vision to mind.  See Him hanging there, beaten, bloodied, disfigured.  Now think about this, there was a Roman solider who stood at the foot of the cross and when Jesus died…this broken, beaten Jesus died…that solider said, “Surely this was the Son of God.”

Isn’t that amazing?  He recognized God, in Jesus, on the cross.  Jesus transformed a Roman device of torture into holy ground, sacred space.

There is something about the cross.  The cross of Christ.  The power of God.  The love of Christ.  It shattered the plans of evil.  It looked like a bringer of death but it became a fountain of life.  It exacted a price while pouring out grace.  Blood shed.  Sin’s price paid.  My Savior died and life He gave.  “I will boast in nothing save the cross,” Paul said.  What do you boast in?