02/24/2025
The Best Kind of Trouble-maker
While working on this last week’s sermon I was looking through Phillip Yancey’s excellent book—The Jesus I Never Knew—when I came across a section that I found profound. It didn’t quite fit my sermon, but it caught my eye enough that I copied it down.
“Jesus was “the man for others,” in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s fine phrase. He kept himself free — free for the other person. He would accept almost anybody’s invitation to dinner, and as a result no public figure had a more diverse list of friends, ranging from rich people, Roman centurions, and Pharisees to tax collectors, prostitutes, and leprosy victims. People liked being with Jesus; where he was, joy was. And yet, for all these qualities that point toward what psychologists like to call self-actualization, Jesus broke the mold. As C. S. Lewis puts it, “He was not at all like the psychologist’s picture of the integrated, balanced, adjusted, happily married, employed, popular citizen. You can’t really be very well ‘adjusted’ to your world if it says you ‘have a devil’ and ends by nailing you up naked to a stake of wood.”
Jesus was a man for others and people enjoyed being with him, but he was also someone who would not compromise the message he’d been given by God—he was someone who stayed true to his mission and purpose. Was he “well adjusted”? In one sense, he was the most adjusted person who ever lived. In another sense, he was adjusted to the world—the way that God designed it, the way that it was intended to be. Unfortunately, that got him in trouble with all kinds of people. When I read words like these I think that it’s okay if I am upset or disturbed over state, national, or international relations. It’s okay to take a stand against cynicism and hypocrisy. As a follower of Jesus I am actually encouraged to resist conforming to the world as it is.
I want to be a man for others and I want to enjoy the people God has put in my life (as I hope that they might enjoy me), but I also know being faithful to Jesus’ vision for our world and for our relationships with one another is going to stir up some trouble. I suppose you can’t emulate a crucified King without expecting a little pushback every now and then. Thank God we don’t have to face that pushback alone.
Archived Posts
What just missed the cut for Sunday’s Sermon
Naaman’s servants may actually become one of the hidden gems of the sermon. They say, essentially: “If the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it.”
One of the Longest Benedictions I Ran Out of Time to Share
Maybe you know the story of how Joseph and Mary accidentally left Jesus at the gas station on their way home from Jerusalem. Well, not the gas station bathroom in Jesus’ case. Joe and Mary are far down the road before they realize Jesus isn’t with them...
So many quips and quotes...
So little time to preach
I wonder what Mary and Martha’s phones might look like:
* Martha = the open browser with 27 tabs
* Mary = the single window that matters
* Psalm 46 = God saying, “Close the tabs.”
Quotable Outtakes That Didn’t Make the Sermon This Week
“When you try to control everything, you don’t just exhaust yourself—you quietly replace trust in God with trust in you.” & more
There is a challenge when it comes to preaching the Word of God.
Preachers are called to open up and interpret the word—inspired and written down thousands of years ago—and make it relevant to a very different world. On top of that there’s a degree of persuasion that goes along with the process.
What Jessica Really Meant to Say in Her Sermon…
When Jessica or Rick or a guest preacher takes the pulpit it’s hard for me to write a One More Thing Blog. I can’t share with you what didn’t make it into the sermon because I have no idea, not having written or delivered it.
Jesus Keeps On Ruining Funerals!
I didn’t have anything this last week that didn’t end up in the sermon. No catchy illustrations that didn’t make the cut. No theological insights that slowed down the main point. No one can ruin a funeral like Jesus. Told as I saw it and that was it. So I did some quick research and I thought I’d share just a reminder of what Easter is all about.