• Who feeds you?

    On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Luke 6:1-5

    Mishnah

    Photo by Martin LaBar via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    This is one of those passages that I’ve glossed over for years. But recently, I’ve been drawn to its intricacies which unlocked the bigger picture.

    First and foremost, the complaint never made sense to me until I started reading Mishnah. Various rabbis passed down various interpretations and instructions on Sabbath regulations. While the written Old Testament gave general directions for obeying the Law, mishnah was the oral tradition that defined the boundaries. And depending on your rabbi and who trained them, the oral tradition told you how many steps you could take on the Sabbath and not be “work.” Or how to cook in a way that wasn’t work for the cook or work for the animals who provided sustenance. As referred to in the passage, there were disagreements about  pulling an Ox out of a hole to save its life. Was it OK to do that on the Sabbath or should we wait? Was it OK to save a life on the Sabbath? Or was it OK to just save its life but not try to help it once you’ve gotten it out of the hole? Various rabbis had various opinions that were passed down through the mishnah.

    While all agreed that the Law required that farmers left a few rows of grain unharvested along the road for the poor/traveling to glean, there was disagreement as to whether it was lawful for the poor/travelers to glean on the Sabbath. So when Jesus replies back to the Pharisee referring to Old Testament passages, the Pharisees are really trying to figure out which oral tradition gave him permission to glean on the Sabbath.

    He frustrates them by offering a remixed version. He didn’t respond from the perspective of a certain rabbi. Nor did he respond by quoting the Law of Moses. Instead, he asked a question that reframed the inquiry altogether.

    Even if you obey the Sabbath— who is the Lord of the Sabbath? And ultimately– who feeds you from his gleanings, the farmer or the Father?

    Physical food

    Who feeds me physically? Our food chain is so messed up that I don’t think we can even comprehend this question. In my fridge right now are fruits/veggies grown on a farm about 30 miles from me. But there is also milk which came from another farm in California. And that cheese? It came from yet another farm in California. Juice? Well, some of the fruit came from Australia (I think) and the rest came from a chemical plant in Ohio.

    The sad reality is that we are so far removed from our sources of food that this passage is completely foreign to us. We don’t have a clue where our food comes from! Our best guess is that we kind of know the grocery companies that we purchased food from. And we certainly don’t go and glean from farmers fields when we are out of cash or on the road. They’d shoot us!

    Ultimately, God provides the food. As messed up and distorted as our food chain is, God is the ultimate source of food. While I don’t think He is the author of high-fructose-corn-syrup, grain filler, and the other GMO crap most of our food is laced with, He is the ultimate provider of both the food that we eat and the money we use to buy it. It all comes from Him.

    Emotional food

    If we zoom out the lens just a little bit we can ask a deeper question. Are you free to eat emotionally on the Sabbath? Are you slowing down enough to listen? Not just to the preacher or the Sunday school teacher or to other people in your small group. But are you slowing down enough on the Sabbath to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in your life? Is He feeding you words of instruction, comfort, and rebuke? Or are you drowning the Spirit out by turning the volume up too loud with the human voices in your life?

    Are you slowing down enough on the Sabbath to listen to your own voice? Are you taking time to process the stuff that is happening? Are you taking time to rest your body? Are you taking time to rest your mind by doing recreational stuff?

    That’s emotional food. The passage evokes a visual of Jesus and his disciples walking along the road, probably quietly as they observe the Sabbath, and the group of them spreading out and gleaning the grain. Each of them plucking heads of grain and grinding away the chaff between their fingers or with their palm before popping the uncooked grain into their mouth. This isn’t tossing a bag of popcorn in the microwave! This took time. And it was likely full of introspection and listening.

    Who feeds you during quiet times of self-reflection? Who speaks to you and gives you emotional food to prepare for the week ahead?

    Spiritual food

    Finally, we zoom the lens on this passage out as far as it goes. With our wide angle lens Jesus asks the question, “Ultimately, who is the Lord of the Sabbath? Who is in charge of the Harvest?”

    Jesus is our ultimate source of nutrition. He is the Provider. He gives us life. He made the sun which warms the soil and provides the energy for photosynthesis.

    Spiritually, Jesus is the source of life on the Sabbath. Rather than leaning on the interpretations of man alone… modern day mishnah… Jesus is eternal, alive today, and active among His people bringing nutrition to the poor and sojourners among us willing to glean along the roadside.

    Clearly and obviously, Jesus wants us to gather with fellow believers to corporately worship Him on the Sabbath. But he doesn’t want us to get lost in the granular act of going to church for spiritual food. That’s a supermarket approach when Jesus gave us the example of finding food where we are on the Sabbath. He reminds us again and again, “I am the Lord of the Sabbath. It belongs to me. It’s ultimately about me. You want to rest, it’s found in me. You want to eat, I am the bread of life.”

    Who are the farmers in your life? Are they leaving a little on the side for you to feed from?

  • Weeds

    The last couple of weeks have been stressful. Work stuff piled up as an ever growing to-do list was at war with two very firm deadlines. Stress built, tension built, and I was an emotional wreck. One day last week I started working at 6:00 am and largely sat in the same place steadily working until 10:00 pm. And I didn’t feel any closer to being done than I did before.

    I’ve learned that one of the ways I relax is to spend time in our garden. Life can be going a million miles per hour and it all slows when I crouch or kneel next to a bed of vegetables.

    The chores of having a garden are fairly simply and repetitive. Fertilize the soil. Plant things at the right time. Water when its dry. Pull weeds. Harvest. Repeat.

    The back-to-basics simplicity is what brings me so much joy. Fresh, organic fruits and vegetables are merely the by-product of the primary benefit.

    Each weed I pull it releases a little bit of tension. In the past couple of weeks, the warmer weather arriving forced me to water more… which resulted in weeds springing up everywhere. That was perfect! Because I had plenty of tension, frustration, and anxiety to pull out with each weed as well.

    Pulling weeds has a strong tie to my life with Jesus, too.

    Here are a few things I’m reminded of as I weed my garden:

    • You can’t just weed once per week.It’s better to weed a little bit each day.
    • Weeds like fertile soil just as much as crop producing plants. Where there is growth there will be weeds.
    • Sometimes you have to be gentle when you pull out a weed. It’s roots my be intertwined with roots of a good plant.
    • Some weeds have thorns and smell bad. But others are pretty and you’re tempted to keep them. Don’t.
    • Bugs eat your fruits and vegetables. For some reason they leave weeds alone.
    • Even the best gardeners pull weeds. You never get above it… you just get better at it. And some just get better at hiding the evidence.
    • Weeding the garden is work. It’s an easy skill but it is always going to get you dirty and always going to make you sweat.

    What are some other parallels between taking care of your garden and your walk with Christ?

  • Pop Culture Christianity

    Am I the only one disturbed by the latest trend that Christians are chasing pop culture & news so they can share their unsolicited opinion?

    Part of my appeal in becoming part of the church was that it was an other-worldly, safe place where it didn’t matter that I wasn’t up on the latest fashion or books or news stories or TV show.

    Today… Many of my evangelical friends seem to have an opinion on every pop culture item of the day. In turn, they pretend to care what my opinion is so that they can tell me their opinion which I don’t really care about.

    Are we really this shallow?

    The latest Kanye West song? Here’s my commentary for how to talk about it in youth groups. The Royal Wedding? We all know someone is going to turn that ceremony into a Bible study on marriage and sell it for $9.99, right? The military finally found their #1 adversary, Osama Bin Laden. Within 24 hours hundreds of Christians had written blog posts telling me how to feel about it, process it through a Christian lens, and talk to my youth group about it.

    Stop the INSANITY!

    I’ve never read anything from Paul that instructs pastors to have an opinion about every news item. Is this buried in your job description under “Other duties as assigned?”

    From a youth ministry perspective I don’t think it’s useful to introduce topics to adolescents, things that genuinely don’t matter to them, for the sake of trying to get them into a discussion, that you can then turn around and blog about, tweet about, or post on Facebook from a perspective of “My students really wanted to know what the Bible had to say about William not kissing Kate at the altar on their wedding day.”

    It feels like there are so many more important things to talk about.

    When I hear of people who talk to their youth groups about all of these topics I think, “Don’t you have a teaching plan? Why do you deviate from it so much? Are you accountable to anyone for what you teach?”

    The best opinion you can have most of the time is no opinion

    It’s perfectly OK to not have an opinion. No one is going to look down on you for saying, “I don’t really pay attention enough to really have an opinion. I’m really focused on loving my neighbors and serving the needs of the students in my youth group.”

    Instead, reject this temptation to have an opinion on every pop culture item that comes across the ticker and focus fully on the ministry Jesus has called you to.

  • First artichoke

    20110503-063909.jpg
    We are very excited to harvest our first 3 artichoke today.

    I have a feeling some delicious dip is in our future.

  • What is my blog all about?

    With the influx of new readers and subscribers, (RSS & email) I thought it was good to do a little reset.

    Why do I blog? What do I blog about? How do I go about blogging? These are the questions I answer in the video above.

  • The 5K challenge

    My first run, walk, crawl, gasp, and drag

    Part of me is thinking, “What have I gotten myself into?” And the other part of me is thinking, “What have I been waiting for?”

    In the spirit of good natured competition, Kristen and I have challenged one another to a 5K run, walk, crawl, bite, fight, or drag. She has a good excuse for needing the challenge… she just had a baby by C-section. (She ran a half marathon last May.) My excuse? I’m fat, sedentary, and have begun to closely resemble a carne asada burrito. Riding my bike a few times per week just isn’t having the effect I need it to so it was time to up the ante.

    Starting yesterday– the challenge is on. We’ve both begun training and smack talk. (OK, I cheated. I started training last week.)

    The wager

    We don’t quite have the wager figured out just yet. Just like we don’t quite have the race picked out. But we do know that we are wagering something fun and we’re open to suggestions.

    If I were a better man. I’d bet on me.

    But if I were looking for the smart bet. My money would be on Kristen.

    Get involved?

    Sure, we will take any encouragement. If you are on Nike + you can be my friend. (mclanea) I don’t plan on broadcasting my training on Facebook, Twitter, or even writing about it much. So if you’re interested in this journey… find me on Nike +.

    Bonus: If you’re in ministry and you’re interested in getting started, I’ve found the #RunRevRun blog pretty encouraging.

  • Vanity in Ministry Life

    At least he's driving a Toyota – Photo by Tony Alter via Flicrk (Creative Commons)

    When I was new in ministry I struggled with the idea that people were paying me to tell them what I thought. (About God, about how to live as a believer, and about a lot of other things.)

    It took me a while to realize this simple fact: They don’t really care what I think. I’m just their pastor.

    Knowing your role

    Vanity is a constant temptation when you serve on church staff. Why? All of a sudden you recognize that people are learning about God based on how you are teaching them. They are worshipping God corporately in a way you are leading them. The way you structure things is how people begin to experience various attributes of God.

    Based on your own observations– You are vitally important to how people know & worship God. You are the leader and they are following you. And that feels really, really good.

    And that is really cool. And it feels really good. But, it’s also just a little, itsy bitsy baby step in your heart to slide from thinking, “This is how God has lead us to do things” to “This is how I lead others to God.”

    If you fall into that temptation you begin to create an ivory tower for yourself. You begin, ever-so-Christian-slyly, to put yourself on a pedestal. And you really start to believe that people care what you think, that you deserve a special place of honor, that you’ve earned a parking spot in the parking lot with your name on it.

    A service goes good and you go home thinking, “I AM THE MAN!” Someone takes a big step in their walk with Jesus and you Tweet, “Joe just gave his heart to Jesus over a cup of coffee. Thank you God, I make the most of EVERY opportunity.”

    Vanity creeps in and its ugly.

    It all crashes down when you leave. That’s the irony of the whole thing. You feel like you are really important some place until you leave your role. And then the next Sunday the alarm goes off and you wake up to realize– those people who were so loyal to me, they are going to go to church and worship God and learn from His Word without you there. [Insert tears, wailing, and gnashing of teeth sound.]

    It doesn’t matter how good you are. They will replace you. And within a few weeks you’ll just be a memory. Two months later and people won’t hardly remember how things were when you are there. People just move on.

    That’s when you discover that you weren’t nearly as important as the role you filled in their lives.

    Resting in your role

    Photo by Henry Burrows via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    You are just filling a role in people’s lives.

    That’s where I find tremendous comfort. I am just filling a role. Nothing more. It’s a good role. But it’s also just a role. And when I leave? Someone else will fill my role.

    Ultimately, no one cares what I think… so I don’t have to think too hard about their questions. Instead, when people ask me what I think, I just tell them the truth. “No one cares what I think, I have no authority, let’s look at what the Bible says. It is God’s love letter to you and I. There’s truth there that will help you long after I’m gone.”

    Whether you are a megachurch pastor of 25,000 people or a rookie with 4 kids in your youth group, there’s rest found in knowledge of your role. Your job is to point people to the person of Christ.

    You are merely the servant who points people to them to the King and Lord of all.

  • The new wedding video

    joya and emre | wedding music video from David Robin on Vimeo.

    What is the world coming to?

    No seriously… this is pretty cool. I kind of wonder if they did the wedding bits for reals and then had everyone stay seated and redo a couple bits. It’s not too often you see a boom camera used at a wedding. I like it!

    And a nice use of the iPad on the front end there, too.

    An idea for my friends Paul and Amy. This would be a nice little $50,000 upgrade to your package!

    What do you think? Fun or tacky?

  • Minister by doing

    Religious leaders get hung up in theological ideological debates, Jesus did not.

    One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Luke 6:1-5

    Or…

    Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”But they remained silent.

    He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man,“Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.Mark 3:1-6

    Or…

    At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

    “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:35-51

    The list of examples goes on and on in the Gospels accounts. Once you start to look for it you see it in nearly every story about Jesus. Religious leaders of Jesus’ day approached everything with a lens of theology and ideology. Meanwhile, Jesus went about His Father’s business.

    The same is true today. Religious people tend to care far more about “who, what, how, when, and why” than they do about living out their Father’s business. O, that we would be different. That today’s leaders would reject the meaninglessness of theological debate for the sake of theological debate and wrecklessly serve the needs of the people.

    Morning prayer

    Lord Jesus, allow me to be a man who lives like you. Let me see my ministry through your eyes and not the eyes of a religious person. Keep me from stupid debates about who, what, how, when, and why. Instead, help me to define this day around my Father’s business. Amen.

  • God grew tired of us

    Last night I finally watched God Grew Tired of Us. It’s a beautiful film worthy of 90 minutes of your time. (And available for streaming on NetFlix.)

    Our neighborhood, like a lot of other communities in the United States, has become a place of refuge for many people relocated here because of war. I’ve heard an estimate that as many as 60 language groups live in the 92115 zip code. A drive down El Cajon Boulevard or University Avenue validates. I meet them all the time, saying hello and exchanging uncomfortable pleasantries. My Swahili, Spanish, and Arabic is far worse than their English.

    The neighborhood in which I live has become a literal refuge in the city as we have a large, open park perfect for sports. Obviously children play at the park all day. But each evening, about 50 Somali men gather to hang out and play soccer until the sun goes down. On Saturday’s, several hundred people, mostly from Mexico and Central America, come to watch youth soccer. On Sunday’s, a different group of men get together to play cricket.

    Lately, my heart has been stirring me to figure out some of these folks stories. Maybe I’m just the curious type? And maybe God is the one pushing me? The difference doesn’t seem to really matter, I suppose.

    I wonder if they are as curious about my life as I am about theirs? What circumstances lead to them arriving here? Like the movie brought out, I wonder who is explaining to them some of the things they are encountering each day of their new life in America?

    I guess I won’t know any of that until I take the first step.