Be Opened!

There is a pastor getting a lot of attention these days.  Her name is Nadia Bolz Weber and she is the founding pastor at House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado.  She is a great communicator and blogger and I wanted you to sample a small morsal of her writing.  Actually, I have copied a portion of one of her sermons delivered at the Festival of Homiletics recently.  Her focus was on the meaning of healing and the text was the story of the deaf man with a speech impediment who was brought to Jesus.  If you remember,  in Mark chapter 7, Jesus put his fingers in the poor soul's ears and said to him "Ephaphatha" that is, "be opened."

Here is a portion of Pastor Nadia's sermon:

It’s simply a wonderful statement for healing isn’t it? be opened.
It’s an image that’s stuck with me all week.  This might sound weird but all week I kept picturing Jesus sticking his fingers in each of your ears – in the ears of you pastors and saying “BE OPENED”.  And then in the same daydream, before I could stop it, I pictured Jesus’ Holy and unwashed fingers in my own ears. He touched me, sighed, looked to heaven and said Be Opened.  To which I said “oh. no thanks”.
Because, let’s be honest, it’s usually easier to not change and it’s painful to be open and healing can hurt. Like a frostbite patient … when the blood comes back into the extremities it’s incredibly painful.  It can actually be more comfortable to allow parts of ourselves to die than to feel them have new life.  Because sometimes healing feels more like death and resurrection than it feels like getting a warm cookie and glass of milk.
For me what’s hard is that there’s not much self-determination left when I stand in the stark presence of Christ – as he sees me for who I really am and then sighs, looks to heaven and says Nadia – be open.  But Jesus is like that, taking us away from whatever the THEY thinks about us, getting all up in our business and insisting on our wholeness. And by our wholeness I am talking about our wholeness.  Me, you, and every other person serving God’s people.
Be opened jesus is saying to you.
Be opened to the idea that your value isn’t in working 60 hours a week for people who might not even be paying attention.
Be opened to knowing that your own brokenness doesn’t need to be hidden behind someone else’s brokenness.
Be opened to the idea that you are stronger than you think.
Be opened to the idea that you aren’t as strong as you think.
Be opened to the fact that you may not ever get what you want and that you will actually be ok anyway.
Be opened to this whole Gospel of Jesus Christ thing actually, actually, actually being real. And actually being FOR YOU.
Because maybe that’s what healing really is.

Perhaps being opened is the deeper miracle.  Perhaps being opened is the true beginning of a cure!

Velvet Elvis

Are you looking for a good book to read?  Pick up Rob Bell's book "Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith."  I am almost done with it but already it is soaring to the top of my favorite book list for 2013.
Every now and then there is a book that really makes you think.  It's like, "if you haven't read this book, you are living your life without a compass."  Granted, I say that about most of the books I get really excited about.  But this one is worth the read. 

Here is a quote from page 89 in the chapter entitled "True:" 

Being a Christian is not cutting yourself off from real life; it is entering into it more fully.
It is not failing to go deeper; it is going deeper than ever.  It is a journey into the heart of how things really are. 

What is it that makes you feel alive?  What is it that makes your soul soar?

Many close their minds to Christianity because they fear it will make their world small and constricted. Or they feel Christians live in a world completely out of touch with reality and the world we all have to face Monday through Saturday.

Rob Bell does a great job of reclaiming the ancient Jewish truth that "the whole world is soaked in the presence of God.  For the writers of the Bible, this truth is everywhere.  It's available to everyone. 

I invite you to give Rob Bell's book a shot.  You don't have to agree with everything he writes.  Wrestle with it.  Think about it.  Allow your faith to grow and stretch a little!  Let God out of the box and truly be God!