Rhythm: Part III - Cadence

Now, I'm not a music theory expert or anything, but I'm basing the concept of this post on this:

"a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution
[finality or pause]."

 A sense of repose or resolution.

We've talked about Mary, and the shepherds.  This final post, which has been deliberately delayed...is about the magi, or 'wise men.'  Mary's rhythm was her heartbeat.  The shepherds was the sound of all their feet rushing to see Jesus.  The magi, their rhythm is a little thing called: the long haul.

Now, we don't know exactly when they arrived to see Mary and the child.  According to Luke, they were in a house.  So, that doesn't mesh up with the traditional scene of the family with the shepherds in a cave as the wise men approach.

Probably cause they didn't arrive that first night.

From some of the other parts of the story, when Herod wants every male child under two, and when the magi tell him when the star appeared, we can make some assumptions, but that is all they are.  Jesus could have been anywhere up to about 2 years old.

These guys didn't have the little run that the shepherds had.  They had to plan a journey.  That means time, money, food, support staff to set up camp cook the food and all that stuff.  It wasn't just a whim weekend road trip.

Neither is it for us today.  The journey for us to meet Jesus, and the one that continues on after.  It's a long road, full of rough and bumpy spots, beautiful places, and lots of other people.

This is a road, a path, a journey that does not end while we are alive.  Nor after for that matter.  I don't believe we ever get to that point in life where we can firmly say we have "arrived" at the best place with Jesus.  There is always something more to learn.  A new sight to see, a new portion of that road to discover.

The magi saw something that caught their attention.  The planned, studied, and then set out.  We don't know how far the traveled.  I think they came from a part of the Babylonian empire that the Jews would have lived during the exile, so that they would have had access to knowledge of the prophecies.

But where someone starts out from on their journey is not the important thing.  What matters is what someone does after they set out on the journey.  The cadence is each foot fall.  Each wheel, hoof, sneaker, boot, spring, leap, stumble, sprint, tear, laugh, and breath of every single person on the journey together.  We might be in different places, but we are all going the same direction.

Toward Jesus.

When you're done reading this, take a moment and close your eyes.  Picture a road.  Maybe it's green and lush and alive.  Maybe it's dusty and worn.  Perhaps rocky and cold.  Think of all the beauty and perils that each road will provide.  The temperatures.  The insects or animals.  Sounds.  The sun or wind on your face.  Weather.  Imagine where that road will go.  What is a head.

Then, think about this.  That you might be walking alone.  Or feel like you are.  But you are not.  And you are not the first person to tread that path.  Someone has gone before you.  And Jesus is right there with you as you go.

I'll leave you with this poem from J.R.R. Tolkien:

“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.”

grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

Rhythm: Part II - Drum Line

So last time we looked at Mary's heartbeat.  Today we're examining a drumline.  And no, I'm not talking about The Little Drummer Boy.

Now, I'm no music theorist or even someone who can tell you if someone sung a wrong note.  My ears and mind don't work that way.  But there is something in the idea of a drumline that we as disciples can relate to.

Mary's heartbeat was just that.  Mary's.  God gave her her own song to sing, her own path to follow.  That is between her and God.  Just like each of us.  We all have our own beat to listen to.  But the drumline represents many of us.  Many heartbeats, together for Jesus.

Kinda like the shepherds in Luke 2.

These fellows did two things that I think we can all ponder in our hearts like Mary did.

These guys were living out in the fields.  With their sheep.  It's just the way things were.  These guys were probably a good bit rougher around the edges than the disciples.  Real 'salt of the earth' if you will.  And these were the first people that God revealed his son to.

Look at most of the stories in the Bible involving angles or messengers of God.  They are usually meeting with leaders, or important folk.  The whole story of Jesus, from beginning to end turns things that are 'normal' or traditional on their prim and fluffy heads.  Other than Mary and Joseph, who gets to be the first to know that the Savior is born, and given directions on where to find him?

The dirty, smelly, salty, fringe of society shepherds.  Most readers out there wouldn't want these guys in your house let alone around your literally new born child.  Let me tell you this, Mary didn't have a bottle of Purell in her robes.

Back to the shepherds themselves.  Here is the scene:

It's night.  Probably pretty dark by now.  You and your shepherding pals are maybe around a fire, one of you is keeping watch out past the flock who are all huddled together.  A wild dog barks in the distance.  A normal night.  Stars in the sky shinning down like always.  When suddenly, you're all surrounded by light and there is a strange figure among you.  He starts talking.  You're freaking out and miss what he is saying,

"...good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

You start to wrap your mind around this, when even more alarmingly there is a whole 'great company' of messengers poof into view with the angel and declare praises to God,

"Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Then they vanish and go back to heaven.

I imagine the shepherds siting there blinking at each other wondering who was going to ask if the others saw what they just saw and risk being thought of as the next "Crazy Willie," of the herding community.  Then after a few moments of deafening silence, they all start to talk at once.  "We have to go!  Let us see what the Lord has done!"

And off they go.  Maybe Crazy Willie was left to watch the sheep.  Maybe they left the sheep there alone.  Or, maybe the sheep went right along with them.  Who knows.  But the shepherds booked it into town.  Their feet running or rambling along the paths.

That is the drumline.

The feet of the hungry running toward what God has done.  When was the last time you ran to meet God?  Or are you more accustomed to that slow, somber walk down to an alter?  Maybe into a confessional.  Or just meeting up with a mentor to talk over coffee.  Run to him.  Let you heart race as your feet pound the earth to see what he is doing.  Be excited about God!

I know it's been a while for me.  And that's no one's fault but my own.  But I'm getting back on my feet and starting to run now.  Cause God is working.  He is always working and moving, and doing and surprising us.  We just forget to be amazed by it.

What are you hungry for?  Will you run to him?  Will you let you feet beat out a drumline as you flock to what he is doing?

I hope so.  I'll see you there.


grace, peace + hope-Jesse

Rhythm: Part 1 - Heartbeat

There is a lot of discord in the world today.  Just look at the news.  If you're like me you don't even have to look that far.  You can just look at your own life.  I know mine is full of ups and downs that are primarily of my own making.

Mainly because I loose my rhythm.

Not that I am a musical person at all.  It takes all my effort to keep clapping at the right time.  But I'm talking about internally.  The thing that moves me as a person and as a disciple of Jesus.

My heartbeat.

Rather, the heartbeat of Jesus.  Does my heart beat for the same things as his?  Sometimes.  Hence, discord.  That can apply individually, and to the church at large.  Sometimes we focus on the wrong things.  How big or small something is.  How things or people are dressed.  The things that don't matter.  Before we get into all that, let's look at some heart facts:

-The heart is a muscle, a pump.  It moves blood throughout your body to give oxygen and nutrients to the millions of cells that make us...us.

-The heart never rests.  From the moment it starts beating until the moment you die, it never stops.

-Did you know that a heart "at rest" works twice as hard as leg muscles in someone who is sprinting.

-The average Human heart beat is 70 bpm and weights a little less than a pound

-A dog: 60-160 bpm

-A cat: 110-240 bpm

-A mouse: 500-600bpm

-An elephant: 30bpm weighs about 40-60 lbs

-A blue whale: 9 bpm and weighs half a ton, 1,000 lbs

Okay, what does that have to do with anything?  Well, I'm getting there.  Take a moment and feel your heart beat.  Put your hand on your chest and feel that muscle work.  Heartbeat.  It's the sound that lets us know we're still alive.  It slows down when we're calm, and races when we are afraid or excited.  But there is a different kind of heartbeat.  Not the actual muscle heartbeat, but the heartbeat of our spirit.  The driving force to how we act and respond to things.

Go read the account of Mary being told she will become the mother of Jesus.  Here's a link: Luke 1:26-38.

The thing I love about all this is Mary's response.  "May it be to me as you have said."  She believed.  She took the messenger of the Lord at his word and believed.  And she obeyed.  Then she goes to her cousins house.  And do you know what happened next?

She worships.  She sings this song glorifying God.  It gets pretty intense too.  It's not just this sweet little happy song.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things

but has sent the rich away empty.

What does your heartbeat sing?  Take some time over the next few days and be still.  Put your hand on your heart and listen.  Listen to what your soul wants to sing about God, about Jesus.  What he has done.  Let that heartbeat set a rhythm in your spirit.

        Love God.
                Love neighbors.
                        Act justly.
                                Love mercy.

grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

Struck, but not Shaken

Living where I do in PA, there is a lot of people worried about the approach of this so-called, "Frankenstorm."  I almost feel cheesy using it as a reference here, but it's what led me to think and read on what I'm about share.

A house built on a firm foundation doesn't fear the flood waters.

Look at these passages out of Luke 6

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.  Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.  The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?  I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice.  He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.  But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

It doesn't say the flood waters missed the house, or that the house was not affected by the torrent.  It simply says that the house was struck, but not shaken.

How's your foundation today?  Dig down deep.  Build it on the rock.

grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

Size Matters Not

In my favorite movie of the Star Wars Saga, The Empire Strikes Back, the hero Luke is on a swamp planet training to be a Jedi Knight.  It is here that he meets the great Jedi master, Yoda.  Yoda is this little green creature with big pointy ears.  Not what Luke (or the original audience was expecting.)

During a bit of training Yoda is teaching Luke to use the Force to lift his crashed ship out of the swap.  After struggling Luke gives up and says, "I can't. It's too big."  Then Yoda says this,

Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not.

Yoda, who was hardly as tall as Luke's knee proceeds to lift the ship out of the swamp on to dry(er) land.  Luke, astonished say, "I don't believe it."  Yoda replies, sadly, "That is why you fail."

Ok, keep that in mind cause I'm gonna diverge a bit here.  I recently saw a magazine for church leaders with a cover article along the lines of "Is Small Church the Next Big Thing?"  Now I wasn't able to read the article to see what they were saying.  So I'm passing no opinion of the actual material.  But one thing is very clear to me.

Size Matters Not.

Yoda was able to lift something much larger than himself because he believed.  Luke, by all appearances was more capable.  Looks are deceiving.

What I'm getting at is not that small churches are better than big churches.  What really matters is the hearts of the people gathering.  Small churches may be more like what happened in Acts.  I personally don't like attending mega-churches.  I've had a hard time keeping my attitude toward them in check.  But God kinda smacked me in the back of the head recently (like a loving father) and I realize that the size of the church is wholly, utterly, completely irrelevant.

A small group of 20 that meets on Sunday just to listen to a person lead a discussion or message, sing songs with out a worship team, and go through their week not living out what they discussed is no different than a mega-church that has 4,000 people, two worship teams, and a parking lot to embarrass a football stadium where the people don't live out during the week.

The revolution that followers of Jesus need to see is not about the size of the church they are in.  It is how we live our life between the services and sermons.

We can't wait for our pastors or whatever title you like to tell us to go to our neighbor with a 3 step plan of conversion.  There doesn't have to be a massive event to bring Jesus into the life of your co-workers.  Invite them into your home, into your life.  Make the time.  Skip a church event or 2 and go get to know these people.  Listen to them.  And don't jump right into your church no matter how wonderful it is.

Show them Jesus in YOUR life.

Size matters not.  The size of the congregation doesn't matter to Jesus.  He left us a few specific instructions.  Go into all the world, baptizing, and making disciples of all people.

So let's go.  You and me.  Out into the world.  Away from the pews and couches and live life along side others. 

Jesus is out there, lets go take him a drink of water.

grace, peace + hope
-Bear