Every now and then I guess we all think realistically (Yes, sir) about that day when we will be victimized with what is life’s final common denominator—that something that we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral. And I don’t think of it in a morbid sense. And every now and then I ask myself, “What is it that I would want said?” And I leave the word to you this morning.

If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. (Yes) And every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. (Yes)

I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. (Yes)

I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.

I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. (Amen)

I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. (Yes)

And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. (Yes)

I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. (Lord)

I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. (Yes)

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. (Amen) Say that I was a drum major for peace. (Yes) I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. (Yes) I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. (Amen) And that’s all I want to say.

If I can help somebody as I pass along,

If I can cheer somebody with a word or song,

If I can show somebody he’s traveling wrong,

Then my living will not be in vain.

If I can do my duty as a Christian ought,

If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought,

If I can spread the message as the master taught,

Then my living will not be in vain.

Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, (Yes) not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.

From “The Drum Major Instinct”.

Advent is a time where we acknowledge our need for God to come down to earth and save us. It’s about preparation, yearning, longing for the advent of our Savior.  

It’s a story of contrasts – God as a baby. A king in a manger. A birth welcomed not by crowds and royalty, but by outcasts and foreigners. Ultimately it is a story of hope for the hopeless, healing for the broken, and light in the darkness.

Our worship music in Advent should reflect that emotion. There’s a place for joy, a necessary and central place for celebration, but that joy and celebration has it’s most weight when seen in the context of the suffering and longing from which it emerges. So Advent music should have a dark edge, a sense of tension and angst, which points us to the darkness of our own hearts that longs for the light of Christ.

In light of all of this I thought I’d compile a list of songs that help foster that Advent spirit. Enjoy.

Advent Songs on Spotify 

A disciple is becoming like Jesus.

A disciple is not someone who stays the same. A disciple is someone struggling to live a life of love and obedience to the Father, living and dying for God’s kingdom. Disciples are called out of their selfish ambitions and they understand that the longer they follow Jesus, the more uncomfortable they will be and the more sacrifice and effort it will require.

Disciples expect tension. They wake up each day expecting that the Father will lead and guide their day; they have given ownership of all they have back to God. They let faith in God win out over safety, common sense, or worldly wisdom…they view Scripture as God’s message to people on mission instead of a series of self-help slogans; they pray out of desperation for the circumstances they find themselves in instead of simply doing things in isolation; they view the church as a community of fellow passionaries joyfully gathering to see each other, as opposed to strangers they sing songs with once a week.

1. Lots of people are talking about how no one is making disciples. Bern Sternke is talking about why no one is making disciples: our theology has taught us that salvation can be equated to agreeing with a few propositional statements. So we’re less interested in making lifelong learners of Jesus and more interested in investing our resources to figure out how to attract people to hear the message.
2. Seeker sensitive. Emerging. Ancient Future. Externally Focused. Now, missional. Without discipleship it’s the same stuff, different package. Mike Breen offers a very helpful post on the unattractive nature of discipleship.
3. Skye Jethani brilliantly invites us to consider life with God. It’s a nine minute video worth every second.
4. The gospel is good news to the poor. Brandon Hatmaker helps us understand that.
5. WIll Willimon reflects on 9/11.

Happy reading.

Churches that listen to sermons deploring crime may be faithful in attending to God’s call for right relationships among humanity. But the church that sets up victim-offender reconciliation and promotes equitable economic opportunities for communities where crime is the main escape route from financial despair is not only faithful but a remarkable light to the world, a city on a hill.

-Darrell Guder – Missional Church

Down Syndrome Survivor

Lately I’ve come to realize that Ashlyn is a Down Syndrome survivor. Hear me out: very few Down Syndrome babies make it into this world. Many pregnant parents who are presented with a diagnosis of Down Syndrome face a difficult life or death decision. And when presented with this decision 90% choose to terminate the life of their baby. (90 percent!) They believe it is the best – they are sparing themselves and their future child from what appears to be a difficult future.

And everything in culture tells them that they are correct. Insurance companies don’t want to pay the long-term health care bills, the government isn’t eager to carry the weight of future expenses, and the fear of the unknown is suffocating. Add to that developmental delays across the board, quality of life concerns, and, perhaps the most difficult of all, the fear of your child being culturally excluded and it becomes clearer why so many Down Syndrome babies are never born.

I still, in fact, have nightmares that Ashlyn will feel as if nobody wants her. Or that she would be treated as if she has no value.

If the predominant values of current American culture is the only story forming our life then choosing to terminate the life of a Down Syndrome diagnosed baby makes sense.

A New Kingdom

But what if current American culture is not all that there is? What if it is old news and there is a new and more real alternative that is already here turning the whole thing upside down?

I desire to be a follower of Jesus. In one of his most compelling teachings, Jesus taught that the person who is poor in what society generally values is actually blessed. Constantly on Jesus’ lips was talk of the Kingdom of God: a place where the last are first, the weak are strong, and outsiders are insiders. Jesus made tangible a God who was with the poor and outcast – not only as a revolutionary political presence – but as a fellow sufferer who comes to the poor in the midst of weakness.

In God’s Kingdom people are welcomed and accepted for what they are instead of what they can or can not do. What they are is a gift. A gift is something to be received with thankfulness and love for what it is, not for what it might become or for what it is not. A gift is loved because it is a gift.

In God’s Kingdom Ashlyn isn’t a problem; she is a gift. Which means that welcoming her, accepting her, caring for her, and supporting her isn’t an act of charity. In God’s Kingdom it’s an act of faithfulness as people respond in love to the gifts (people) God has given to them.

And as we do we may find that although we thought we were welcoming a person with a disability we actually were welcoming Jesus himself. Could it be that the body of Christ has Down Syndrome?

That is my hope. It’s not wrapped up in society changing or becoming more accepting. It’s rooted in a God who blesses those who are poor and who suffers in the midst of weakness. His Kingdom is made visible as we welcome and receive each other as gifts.

My prayer is to, in some small way, make visible and tangible that Kingdom.

But she was here and safe. She took her first breath, she was weighed and measured and she cried while the doctor and nurses were examining her. It took a while. Then the doctor said a sentence to us that changed our lives: ‘we think your daughter has Down Syndrome.’

We were in emotional shock. We held each other, exhausted, trying to reassure each other that it would be okay. Even though we might not have said it we felt a sense of sadness about the future. Our lives had taken a dramatic turn and we weren’t sure how we would respond.

Ashlyn’s diagnosis was only the beginning. Since that day 2 years ago our journey has been unexpectedly great. Ashlyn has taught us so much about life, love, and God. Her smile brings me joy I didn’t know existed. She has taught me to enjoy the simple things in life and to laugh hard at some of the silliest. She’s my filter.

This year, our family is celebrating our daughter by walking in the Down Syndrome Indiana Buddy Walk. It’s a one day event designed to increase awareness about children like Ashlyn. If you’re reading this, you’re invited to walk with us that day. Ashlyn was blessed to be born into an incredibly loving community of family and friends. We’d love for nothing more than for that community of love and support to be present for Ashlyn. She’d love it too (and probably give you a hug). You’re also invited to donate on Ashlyn’s behalf to Down Syndrome Indiana.

To register to walk with us, to donate, or to learn more, please visit our Page.

Thanks for your love for Ashlyn and your support of people blessed with an extra chromosome.

Every week I create content. Often, my content creation process is aided by books. The process of thumbing through a book to find the once remembered content to include is time consuming and inefficient, not to mention frustrating.

The solution I’ve settled on includes Evernote – a free web app and browser extension that stores your content in a searchable environment – and Kindle – an e-reader device or application (I use the app).

A few months ago I started to read books primarily in an electronic form via a Kindle app. I instantly enjoyed it. I especially liked the ability to highlight important bits of information and include my own notes. And I loved that each book was searchable. What I was missing, however, was the ability to search across books.

How awesome would it be to search the term ‘forgive’ across every book in my library?

Here’s my solution:

1. Read a book and highlight or make notes as you read.
2. When you’re done, visit your account at kindle.amazon.com
3. Click on ‘your highlights’ and select a book.
4. Use the Evernote browser extension on that webpage to clip it into a note on your Evernote account.

Voila. It’s that easy and has totally changed the game for me.

I’m a pastor. It’s a vocation that is quickly earning a reputation as being hazardous to children, spouses and even to pastors ourselves (there is a reason that pastors are considered high risk in the insurance industry).

God willing, I’m in this for the long haul. I’d love to do it for a lifetime. I’m committed to not losing my family in the process. So, tomorrow my office will be dark and my phone will be (silenced) upstairs.

And if I needed any extra incentive I received it last October when some of the kids at our church wrote me ‘Thank You’ notes on little cut out hands. It was incredibly sweet. When my oldest daughter was asked what she would like her note to say to her pastor and father she said ‘Thank You, Daddy.’

I keep that hand on the corner of my desk. I see it when the clock approaches quitting time and I could work hours longer. It’s a daily reminder.

My desire isn’t just for our family to ‘survive’ my vocation. I’d like for us to thrive. And I really hope my sweet little 4 year old will say the same thing about my profession when she is 18.

• Pharaoh’s chooses the Nile as his instrument of destruction but the Nile becomes the means of saving Moses.
• Pharaoh orders all people to discard Hebrew baby boys into the Nile. Moses’ mom saves his life by following Pharaoh’s order.
• It’s Pharaoh’s own daughter that undermines his policy and saves the person who would lead Israel out from under her Dad’s oppression.
• Moses’ own mother gets paid to nurse her own son from Pharaoh’s own budget.

It’s divine irony. What appears to be strong is exposed as weak. Or, ‘God uses the weak, what is low and despised, to shame the strong.’ I’m usually not one for principles but this one holds true: God works through persons who have no obvious power.

In the face of overwhelming systemic evil, God is found in the vulnerable and weak. In fact, salvation, in Exodus 1 and 2, comes through 5 women and a helpless baby in a fragile basket. Throughout the story God shows up in unlikely ways through unlikely people.

It’s a story of hope. God seemed to be absent but he was very present in unlikely people. The Empire seemed to be strong but it was undermined by the powerless. Israel seemed to be doomed but was saved by an outsider (Pharaoh’s daughter).

It appeared to be a hopeless time but it was actually full of possibility. Isn’t that ironic?