Two Ways the Un-named Shepherds Help us to FIND OUR TRUE NAME

Has the Christmas story about the shepherds “keeping watch over their flock by night” become boringly time-worn for you?

Yep.  You just began to yawn at the mention of this familiar story, didn’t you?

Common things can lose their emotional carbonation and seem flat.  This makes sense because God created us as curious children with a hunger for fresh surprises.

Join me as we pick this shepherd story back up and shake it a few times like a snow globe.  

The Spirit often surprises us when we meditate on and engage His living Word.

• In Luke’s famous narrative he doesn’t even mention the names of the shepherds.

This is significant because our specific name is a powerful identity marker.

Think back to the last time someone miss-pronounced your name.  Did it irk you?  Even a little bit?  You probably corrected them so that they identified you correctly in the future.

What exactly is an identity and how do the un-named shepherds help us to find our true name?

Our identity consists of two interlaced strands.

• The first strand is our persistent personality that remains the same regardless of the circumstances.  It is our durable core.
• The second strand is our sense of value and worth bestowed on us from others.  You did not and cannot name yourself.  You cannot affirm yourself either. Remember, we are all children of God.  Children cannot name themselves.

Let’s glance back at the shepherd story found in Luke chapter 2.

First notice that the shepherds were identified primarily by what they did, not for who they were.

A shepherd is a person who does something with sheep.  He or she cares for sheep.

That is true as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. 

In the Jewish culture a shepherd occupied the lowest rung on the social ladder.  The rabbis did not allow them to be a witness in court, because all shepherds were seen as suspicious, lying thieves.

Have you ever wondered why the shepherds reacted with terror when the angel spoke and light shone all around them?  Usually we become less scared when the lights come on.  For the shepherds, they knew that their lives were littered with sinful, shameful deeds and the light revealed their blemishes and brokenness.

Does God look at you and identify you primarily with the sin you did in the past?  It can feel that way at first.  We want to hide and turn off the light of God’s holiness.  

When we look back on the lily-pad path of our life, we wince at the memories of all of the wrong things we hopped onto and into to give us a sense of identity and we are ashamed.

But remember that the angel said “Fear Not…God is at peace with all those with whom he favors.”

Don’t miss this.  God first favors you, in Christ, and views you as worthy in His sight even while you retain a rotten record.

This is joyfully great news.  Your identity is not primarily related to your doing but instead to God’s doing.  God finds favor in the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus and sees you, in Christ, as pleasing in His sight.

Someone once said “Such as a man’s love is, such is the man.”  The shepherds knew that their constant self-love, manifested by their criminal activity, exposed their identity as sinners.

But in this story of the shepherds we find that such as a man is loved, such is the man.

We see God loving them for who they were in his sight rather than through the lens of their dirty doings.

Secondly, the unnamed shepherds were freed from having to create a false, fleeting identity.

Instead of feeling sorry for these shepherds without names, what if Luke was pointing out how freeing it is to live in God’s favor instead of a false identity; a false name?

Here’s what I mean.

Imagine a deck of cards.  Picture each card as an identity marker.

We often think that our family, friends, fitness, finances or fun ultimately identify our essential, durable core.

But like cards in a deck, any of these false identity markers that make it to the top of the deck may get reshuffled at any time through underperformance or circumstances that we cannot control.

If you think your financial status defines you, what if you lose most of your money and have to lower your standard of living?  Did the real you disappear?

Of course not.  Something you placed at the top the deck was shuffled lower and yet you remain the same person.

The December 2015 issue of The Atlantic has this cover article:  “The Silicon Valley Suicides.  Why are so Many Kids With Bright Prospects Killing Themselves In Palo Alto?”  The reporter explains that performancism (stressing your performance in sports, academics, looks, fashion etc.) was a possible trigger behind these suicides.

There is a lot of pressure to remain at the top as a student, and the anxiety involved in maintaining that perched position can be excruciating.

These teens saw their ultimate identity through the lens of their performance and chose to die instead of remain on the hamster wheel of hopeless exhaustion.

Instead of working to be seen, the unnamed shepherds were seen by God ultimately as favored sons and daughters.

Their essential identity as a favored family member was placed at the top of the deck by God.

When God looks at those that place their trust in Christ, He sees us through the identity of Christ.

And surprise!!  We experience the two strands of identity:  Our unique personality persists despite our doings AND we are named as forgiven, favorable family members.

Thanks for shaking the snow globe of Scripture.

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

Three Remedies for Hurry Sickness

Confession number one from a Presbyterian pastor:  I suffer from a severe form of hurry sickness.

Confession number two:  My self-imposed busyness is my greatest form of laziness.

Busyness is laziness?  Yes.  

For me, I stay busy as a way to avoid doing the hard, important things that take sustained work.

God architected me to be fully human by doing unhurried things like resting, watching the stars, playing with my children, gazing upon the beauty of my wife, or simply singing a song to God without distractions.

But slowing down to exert energy toward significant things is really hard work.

And I already feel like the frayed heel of a sock most of the time.

Desires, demands and expectations surround and bite me like a swarm of vampire mosquitoes.  

Most moments I’m feeling frazzled and lack the emotional energy for lift-off.

Do you suffer from hurry sickness too?

Here are three remedies to reset and slow down your restless soul.

• First, remember that a chicken always needs a head.

O.K.  Graphic image—sorry.

The old farmers used to watch a chicken run around like crazy, after its head was cut off.

The body disconnected from the head, initially looks busy and hurried, but it finally runs out of steam, staggers, stops, and strikes the ground with a flump.

Have you ever felt like you were “running around like a chicken with its head cut off?”

Could “headlessness”  be why we run around so crazy-busy?  

Am I following Christ (he is called the head of his body and bride, the church) and his humanizing direction, or my own fast-paced, selfish pursuits?

• Do I need to stay busy to maintain control over everything and everybody?

Wait a minute?  If Christ is the head and I am his body, then I don’t actually have ultimate control.

I can rest!

• Do I need to stay busy because I want things to turn out perfectly?

Wait a minute.  If Christ is the head, he is directing all of my decisions to his decreed aims.  Even my mistakes factor into his perfect plan.

I can rest!

• Do I need to stay busy posturing and posting for my prestige?

Wait a minute, If Christ is my head and I am his body and bride, I no longer have to push myself forward to be noticed in social gatherings or on social media for attention in order to get a “like” so that I momentarily feel like I matter.

I can rest!

The second remedy for hurry sickness is a schedule.

Sounds boring and hard?

Remember, busyness is often a deceptive form of laziness.

A schedule defends you from busyness and acts like a net that catches butterflies.

How so?

Those pressing desires, demands and expectations flitting around in your head can be caught and ordered so that the beautiful, significant things get top priority.

A schedule also acts like scaffold.  You stand on your planning to create one area of life at a time.

Like most truths, when finally embraced it seems crazy that I didn’t recognize it years ago.

I used to believe that free spontaneity always trumped planning and scheduling.

But when you chase two spontaneous rabbits at a time (like checking your email while eating at the table with your child) you catch neither.  The quality of the email AND being fully present with your child cannot both occur.

My poor planning is often ruled by my immediate desire for selfish pleasures.

Planning good things that serve Jesus, my family, my church and my soul prepares me for lasting pleasures.

It really is true, the second remedy for hurry sickness is a schedule.

The third remedy for hurry sickness is holiness.

Why would I say that?

Holiness is living life in an upside-down, totally “other” kind of way.

Slow down and ask yourself the following questions I recently found written by a pastor named Tim Chester.

 Use them like I did to diagnose your level of unholy hurry sickness…and be honest.

“Do you regularly work thirty minutes a day longer than your contracted hours?”

“Do you check work e-mails and phone messages at home?”

“Has anyone ever said to you, ‘I didn’t want to trouble you because I know how busy you are’?”

“Do your family or friends complain about not getting time with you?”

“If tomorrow evening were unexpectedly freed up, would you use it to do work or a household chore?”

“Do you often feel tired during the day or do you find your neck and shoulders aching?”

“Do you often exceed the speed limit while driving?”

“Do you make use of any flexible working arrangements offered by your employers?”

“Do you pray with your children regularly?”

“Do you have enough time to pray?”

“Do you have a hobby in which you are actively involved?”

“Do you eat together as a family or household at least once a day?”

 Holiness is not state into which we drift.

In other words, we need to connect our lives into Christ’s life and live differently as we surrender to his direction.

Instead of engaging our fingers and thumbs on endless screens that strangle our souls, what if we disengaged more from the digital world and reengaged our thoughts and hearts in deeper thinking concerning God’s kingdom and purposes?

What if we engaged our hands in sacrificial serving?

Would you follow me and get active and busy about engaging in these three new rhythms of rest?

The hurry sickness just might slow down enough for us to feel truly human again.

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

Three Suggestions to Help You Speak Your Sorrows

My eighth grade French teacher was pretty.

But that’s not what hypnotized me when I sat three rows deep, waiting for the first class to begin.

When she opened her mouth and began to speak French, I fell into a trance of romance.

As the consonants and vowels dropped out of her mouth and formed new sounds like “Pol—eeee---vooo---fran---saaaay,” I was swept off of my feet.

The sounds combined and seemed to express love and sadness and joy and passion.

I repeated the words day after day, until the sad thing happened.

It was as if someone snapped their fingers and the trance was broken.  

One day, I simply stopped speaking French.  Eighth grade was over and it was time to move on to Spanish, Algebra and American History.

In a similar way, I wonder if many of us have lost the ability to speak our sorrows.

We are so caught up in our rushed lives that we lose the language of lament.

The Christian story admits that the cosmos is cracked.  All is not well.  Cries of sorrow and grief ought to be heard if we are honest about reality.

How can we begin to speak our sorrows again?

First, linger when you sense lament.

Don’t immediately distract.

Lament happens when we give unmixed attention to that which has split and splintered our peace.

The divorce….the lay-off….the miscarriage……the child that has rejected your guidance……your friend’s child diagnosed with terminal cancer….the prayer that God won’t answer in the way you have begged Him to answer….

Linger in the loss.

On this dark path, stop and try to form the vowels and consonants of sorrow.

Words will not come at first.  They almost never do.

Moans and groans express pain best, and God understands your speech of sorrow.

Second, join hands with your lament teacher, the Holy Spirit.

Did you know that many of the Psalms are songs of sorrow?

Through your tears, read along with the Spirit-teacher songs like Psalm 13, (“How long must I bear pain in my soul…?) Psalm 22 (“My God, I cry by day, but you do not answer”) and Psalm 55 (“My heart is in anguish within me”).

It is so hard to find and form the words that express ripping pain.  The Spirit knows them all and will patiently help you mouth and moan them as He comforts you.

He will comfort you as you wail, with your hot face pressed against your shaking palms.

A third suggestion for speaking your sorrows involves taking intentional glances at the scars of the Savior.

Jesus is called a “man of sorrows.” (See Isaiah 53 for specifics.)

As Mary birthed her Son through tears of pain and moans of sorrow, Jesus entered our crying world as a crying child.

He identified with us when he became one of us.

He understands our losses in their deepest dimensions.

Every step of his life met with stabs of pain.  He saw and felt disease, disempowerment, and despair.

And yet, in the garden of Gethsemane, he spoke his sorrows to the Father.

He trusted in the steadfast love, plans, and purpose of His Father as he sweat blood-drops of lament.

Every once in a while I hear someone speak a word in French.  I’m older now and not as motivated to re-learn this language of love.

But I want to speak my sorrows better and better as I join my Savior in singing the songs of lament.

Will you join me?

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

Read the Surprising Story about a Dad, His Daughter….and a Claw Machine

As a father of five restless kids, I’ve frequented the local Chuck E. Cheese or arcade more times than I can count.

And why not?

These noisy, hyper-stimulating environments are places where “a kid can be a kid” (…and a dad can waste some serious cash!).

Embarrassingly, the following sequence of events at a local arcade, have happened to this dad way more than once.

See if you can relate.

While my little daughter is holding my hand, I walk by the “Claw Machine” refusing to pay it any attention.

The abrupt tug of her hand tells me that she has stopped to take a look at something important.

I notice that my daughter’s head is directed toward and tilted up at the clear glass of that seductive machine.

The claw, that metal, grasping, artificial hand, dangles silently inside of the box-shaped game.

I know immediately what my daughter desires.

The owner of the arcade has placed the cutest, softest, snuggliest stuffed animals inside of this glass prison.

Intentionally, the adorable animals face out, toward my daughter and me, with wide, unblinking eyes begging for emancipation.

“Daddy!  Please get me the pink one.  Please!  Please!”

Now I’m a dad.  I’m no heartless miser, and my daughter knows that from the bottom of her little heart.

I just know that I can insert a few shiny tokens and take command and control of that motionless, metal claw.

My mission?

Rescue the poor, fluffy cuddle-bear and deliver the prisoner into my daughter’s arms.

But first—I have to get that stuffed toy into the grip of that claw.

I slide the tokens through the skinny slot as I take a cleansing breath to ready myself.

Anxiety begins to rise as I remember that this is a timed mission.

If I can’t rescue that poor, kissable creature in 15 seconds, my daughter will suffer great loss.

Yes, my palms are sweaty.  I wipe them on my pants for a better grip of the joystick.

I eyeball the fat, neon-pink bear like a cat eyeballing a mouse.

I position the claw.

No!

My coordinates are not exactly on target.

But I still have three seconds.

I tap the joystick forward- and manipulate that claw, ensuring that it won’t miss its mark.

I take a rapid look at my daughter and note that she is smiling with unwavering confidence at her daring dad.

I glance one last time at that fuzzy bear.

And I hit the red button with the same conviction as a politician hitting his podium.

Down the claw descends.

I watch it in slow-motion as the metal tentacles wrap around my caressable fluff-toy’s head.

Yes! 

The vice-like grip of the claw wrenches my bear free, and begins to suspend her high in the air.

My daughter and I both hold our breath, our mouths open in joyful anticipation.

But then the impossible happens.

Right before the imprisoned creature is set free, she slips out of the claw’s grasp.

Our dear, puffy prize lands helplessly and hopelessly at the bottom of the box, and we can’t even hear the thud.

Yes, I pick up my daughter to comfort her.

I feel guilty because I really picked her up to comfort me.

Yes, I feel like a failure, a loser, and the worst dad EVER.

And yes, I put in two more quarters to try again.

Now why did I tell you that story?

Because God owns everything and has engineered our hearts to grip him alone for lasting satisfaction.

God has designed us in such a way that we cannot grasp wealth for our worth.

A poem from Psalm 24 begins “The earth and everything it contains are the LORD's. The world and all who live in it are his.”

Did you get that?

God, not you or me, owns everything.

This is more liberating than you might believe.

Since God owns everything, we are created to simply care for what He has created.

We were never meant to claw after created things as if we were owners.

Our hearts were never engineered to grab and own anything.

And here is the zinger.  I recently found out that the Claw Machine game is rigged.

You probably knew that already.

I found out that the owner engineer’s the claw to grip loosely so that the prize cannot be captured on the first try.

Now the owner can program the claw to grip strongly, after say 15-20 attempts.

An occasional win (much like a casino’s slot machine) fuels the addictive allure of the game increasing the owner’s profit.

But even then, the player must perform perfectly with the joystick to line up his win.

And does the cheap toy really satisfy?  No.

And don’t miss this.  God has programmed our hearts in such a way that they simply cannot grab and grasp and own the stuff of this world.

God alone owns everything.  We receive and care for His gifts with endless freedom.

Our hearts were formed by our Father to be filled with him alone.

Only His Son satisfies.

Only His Spirit brings lasting joy.

Would you join me in living as a caretaker of creation, rather than an owner?

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church