Belief | christopherhildreth

Archive for the ‘Belief’ category

Wine….and more wine!

September 17, 2008

In lieu of the comments from Sunday’s message I feel compelled to bring up the story of Jesus and the wedding in Cana. In spite of the church’s need to display Jesus as a party pooper, he was nothing of the sort. Jesus was, in fact, the kind of guy you would want around if you were to throw a party.

Jesus’ ability to turn water into wine, although very handy, is not the reason I chose to give my allegiance to him. Jesus embodies hope and gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. He sees all of life as a sacred celebration. This story is full of implications that when life seemingly runs out of joy/hope/peace/meaning (wine) he is there to bring it back. When everything seems lost and the party is doomed, look for Jesus like Mary did and he’ll bring the abundant life back to your party.

The biggest thing this story can teach us is seen as John mentions that it took place on the third day. The third day is typical of resurrection, and if so, the first day would be the wonderful – everything is OK good Friday. The second day would have to be those liminal spaces where we are anything but settled, but the third day is significantly different. With Jesus’ response, the third day becomes a day filled with expectancy and hope.

For us the significance of this story has to go to the jars of water. Prepared for a sacred service they are transformed into functional jars for the service of the people. How much of our own religious world is filled with sacredness. So much so that we overlook it’s functionality to service. If the service needs to change from Sunday to Thursday let’s change it. If we need to sit on the floor instead of pews, let’s do it. If we need to have a true conversation instead of a talking head let’s do it. Certainly in the church there are issues of practicality, but ultimately everything that we do has the ultimate end of bringing people into the abundant life Christ has given to us. Everything is a means to that end – not an end to itself.

Mary knew that the party didn’t have to end. She knew what resided in Christ -and so do we. As we look toward our future, let our response be that of Jesus. Crank up the music, tell the baby-sitter you’ll be late, smile and grab your partner, this party isn’t near over. The best really is yet to come!

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Context, Creativity, Influence, Kingdom of God, Life, religion

Comments: 2 Comments

“That’s My Neighbor”

September 7, 2008

I can hear it now, echoing through the streets this week, “That’s my neighbor!” For this week, in the Pillars Series focusing on spiritual disciplines, we aimed the light on Service. Ah, that wonderful word! It is amazing how some words drip with feeling. When we hear the word service and couple it with the idea that the service being spoke about should be done to our neighbors – and “O by the way”…everybody is your neighbor, a collective gasp is heard. We have no problem talking about doing service to our neighbor as long as we get to pick who gets to be “my neighbor”.

We like the Mr. Rogers approach – “Please won’t you be my neighbor” which implies – please won’t you other people not be my neighbor. The scripture imperative is clear. We should live our lives as though we are in intimate contact with everyone. We should treat everyone, as the Golden Rule says, the way we would want to be treated.

These are great things to say, and even use as a platform when running for office. The quandary comes when we are faced with actually doing it. This is such an “in your face” moment. You find yourself in the presence of someone who is not acting in a very neighborly way, but suddenly you remember that they are in fact your neighbor. What to do?

It is in these moments of self observation that the most critical choices are made. It is simple to make the decision to treat your neighbor nice when put in front of a congregation of church people, the real determining actions are done when you are the only witness. These are the times when you build what was once called character. These are the times when you grow and “become”.

Determine beforehand your reactions and then follow through on your promise to yourself. This week can be an incredible week of triumph as together we look into every face and truly recognize it as that of our neighbor.

Categories: Belief, Message Series, People

Comments: Be the first to comment

Night of Worship – Silence

September 3, 2008

This month’s Night of Worship was marked by discussion and practice of Centering Prayer. We sang a then after a time of explanation, practiced five minutes of centering prayer. This is one of the aspects of spiritual disciplines that is sometimes difficult for people to understand. Somehow it seems less “sacred” to practice a discipline. We would rather heed Nike’s theme and “just do it”.

The problem with the “just do it” approach is that we tend to find ourselves quickly in over our heads and overwhelmed. The result of this overload is that we stop the discipline and go forward in our lives with a sense of failure about a particular practice. I cannot stress how important it is for us to understand that every aspect of our lives is a learning process. This includes those aspects we deem spiritual or not. As we practice we become more familiar and more able to share our experience and knowledge with others.

To become true disciples we must not just focus our attention on aquisition of knowledge and practice, but also on becoming teachers ourselves. To teach out of our experience is to give a part of ourselves to others. My favorite teachers taught from their hearts as well as their minds.

I’m learning how to develop time to be silent and open myself up to God. In that development, my desire is to help others along the way as we all seek to know more about what it means to be a Christ follower.

Categories: Belief, Centering Prayer, Leadership, Music

Comments: Be the first to comment

Pillars Part 5

August 31, 2008

This week the focus of our teaching was the discipline of the study of Scripture. One of the key verses mentioned was Prov. 4:20-22. This talked about the words being given to us equating to life for our bodies. This is an analogy echoed by Christ in the New Testament when He proclaimed that “Man cannot live by bread alone”, that man needed to also partake of “the Word of God”.

To me a perspective shift is in order for us to truly understand all that is taking place when we enter into the discipline of study. First, we have mental focus, much the same as during meditation. Our focus for a period of time is on a portion of scripture. Layer after layer we look at what the words mean to our current context in terms of description and action. Secondly, there is a sort of fast going on. Instead of indulging in something else we have chosen to spend time looking into scripture.

Thirdly, and most importantly, we are not on a search for answers to our questions. There is no promise in scripture that we will know every answer for every question. Yes, there are certainties, but these certainties are far fewer than the traditional fundamentalist would like to admit. Let’s face it, if the real answers to all of man’s problems were found in scripture don’t you think things might be just a bit better in the world? We generalize and say that Jesus is the answer, and to many questions He is, but not all.

Often I have been engaged in conversation with someone who has a file for every question and an answer for each question tucked neatly inside. Sometimes I want to be like Dr. Phil and ask, “So how’s that going for you?”. Christianity is a journey, a process full of unknowns and questions. Somehow this is unsettling to people in church today.

Jesus never said He was the destination, He only said He was the Way. One of the key problems we have in scripture is that it is written in words. Words are concrete and definitive. Following Christ is anything but concrete and definitive. Following Christ is organic and fluid, spur of the moment and transcendent of words. The Buddhists in their search for truth are open and honest about not knowing. We demand a truth stated perfectly in words, but Jesus only said that He was the truth – His being, His presence.

We could go much further, but for now, embrace the path. Become enamored with the insignificant and fleeting. Read scripture and let it become living within you and show you what it is speaking to you. Let go and let the words fall to the ground like seeds and then wait – who knows what wonderful things may arise in your life!

Categories: Belief, Context, Life, Message Series, religion

Comments: Be the first to comment

Archaic Furniture

August 28, 2008

In Dee Hock’s, Birth of the Chaordic Age, an intriguing book, he mentions that:

“The most difficult part [of forming a chaordic organization] is to understand and get beyond the origin and nature of our current concepts of organizations; to set them aside in order to make space for new and different thoughts. Every mind is a room filled with archaic furniture. It must be moved about or cleared away before anything new can enter. This means ruthless confrontation of the many things we know that are no longer so.”

This is such a profound and illuminating idea. Even scripture, with the parables of Jesus, compares our bodies as temples and houses. Being aware that something needs to be done is the first step, but then the moving or removal of mental furniture begins the real process of transformation. As Dee says later, a purpose must be agreed upon to direct the renovation. This purpose, both personal and professionally, has incredible importance in the “next steps” we take. It’s not something we spend five minutes on and then move – instead it can take much longer. Like other things in life it also is not static. There will be times when it will need reevaluating as well. This process is ongoing without ever arriving at a destination, but the result is a life fully lived and, as Jesus said, “more abundant”.

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Context, Creativity, Cultural Ideas, Goals, Influence, Leadership, Life

Comments: Be the first to comment

Personal Platform

August 27, 2008

We are in the election season in the United States. This means that we have primarily two parties, who each have a nominee for President of the United States. The way we know what these nominees believe and what they plan to do is by their “platform”. In each acceptance speech the nominees will list each “plank” of their platform. Subsequently, they will go all over the country and try to explain the differences between them and their opponent.

We are all used to this during election seasons, but what about yourself, what is your Personal Platform? What are the things that make you tick and cause your emotions to soar? Have you ever thought about writing those things down? Once something is written and articulated it gives you a piece of solid ground – your ground – on which to stand.

When you hear a speech, you know when someone is speaking from a paper or from their heart. Learn to live your life from your heart. Only then can the true You shine forth unabated by the filters of others.

Be clear and concrete and state your platform in vivid, unequivocal terms that will inspire and motivate others. Then read it out loud to yourself. See if you don’t feel a bit better and the future a bit clearer!

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Creativity, Influence, Life

Comments: Be the first to comment

Hauerwas quote

August 22, 2008

Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School. Throughout his career, he has focused emphasis on the importance of virtue and character within the Church. I found this quote and it embodies what I feel the church is to be.

“The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principles for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and self-sacrificing love in its rituals and discipline. In that sense, the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ’s message, but to be the message.”

This is such an important ideal to grasp – especially as we near the hard and heavy election season. Christians are best, not when they seek to infiltrate society and bend it to their will, but when they seek to embody the character of Christ.

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Context, Kingdom of God, religion

Comments: 1 Comment

Unconditional Love

August 19, 2008

I’ve had a question bouncing about in my mind for several months. My point here is not to answer the question or even come close to a few conclusions. What I want to do is offer this question as a beginning place in rethinking what it may mean to be a follower of Christ.

In regard to our proclaiming of a God who loves us with an unconditional love, we seem satisfied to only be able to receive this unconditional love after we have met the condition of (depending on faith) asking, believing, confessing, baptizing, etc. In it’s basic Sunday School representation there appears to be contradiction. Just as one is either pregnant or not (there is no “kind of pregnant”), you either love someone conditionally or unconditionally. In light of this, how does that effect the Biblical narrative we have been offered by previous generations and are offering to the next generation?

After all, this is the basis of our emotional connection with God. If we buy into the concept of a conditional loving God, fear of not measuring up becomes a primary posture in relating to God. If we buy into the concept of an unconditional loving God, performance barriers are gone.

So, what has been the full context of your view of God’s love and how has that colored your perception of God and your own potential? How crucial is a consistent “seeing” of God’s actions and motives?

Categories: Belief, Context, religion

Comments: 1 Comment

More Wild Goose

August 15, 2008

In the last couple of days, my counter said that over a hundred of you guys have visited. I still have the book, Wild Goose Chase, to give away. Just post your idea to impact the world in the comments section and we’ll pick and give the book away. More importantly, we will begin a conversation about joining together and “doing” something.

Categories: Belief, Books I'm Reading, Life, Starting

Comments: Be the first to comment

Pillars Part 2

August 11, 2008

Sunday was a great experience as we looked deeper into the importance of living a disciplined life. Often we find ourselves in searching for truth going to extremes in order to find balance. The Ying and yang alone are powerful forces, but put together they create a harmony – a balance.

Thomas A`Kempis wrote about being an imitator of Christ as was mentioned by quoting Ephesians. This is obviously not an easy task, but it brings with it an excitement in that we have been asked to do the imitating. We are not invading God’s space or being disrespectful to try and imitate Him. Instead we are walking exactly in the path He wishes.

I loved the Dallas Willard quote – “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning”. We can’t earn any more than we have, but we still must remain active and moving. We must still “be about the Father’s business.”

Categories: Belief, Lifepoint, Message Series

Comments: Be the first to comment

Archive for the ‘Belief’ category

Categories

Archives