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Tuesday, 04 November 2008

  • Voting Biblical Values

     

    As you go to the polls today, I want to encourage you to remember the following things - from my sermon series, Christians in Politics and Public Life.

    Far as the Curse is Found
    We serve a King who is Lord of everything and nothing is beyond his reach. Christ is relevant to every sphere of life - public and private; secular and sacred. As Abraham Kuyper says, “There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, “This is mine. This belongs to me.”

    The reach of God’s kingdom extends “as far as the curse is found.”  Therefore as followers of Christ we seek to apply the work of Christ in every arena of life – personal, relational, societal, institutional and yes political.
     
    Love Your Enemies
    We live in an upside down kingdom, which requires us to love our enemies! Christ died for democrats and republicans. At the end of the day, winner and loser alike must be treated with respect and love and that goes for their supporters.
     
    Understand Biblical Values
    Philippians 1:27     reads, “Live out your citizenship in a manner worthy of the gospel.”Our citizenship is measured by our faithfulness to the gospel not our loyalty to a political party.

    We are committed to a biblical agenda that seeks to identify the core issues of the Bible and to engage politically, guided by those values. A cursory study of the Bible tells us that these values at least include the sanctity of human life – born and unborn, compassion for the needy, social justice, peace among all peoples, protection for the powerless and the removal of divisions. Your own list might be a little different but what matters is that you have developed one from the Bible and attempt to consistently live and vote by it.

    Remember, we must apply these biblical values in a fallen world. Life is messy and our candidates, like us, are imperfect. It is unlikely that you will ever get to vote for a candidate that embraces all the biblical values to your satisfaction. So you will have to choose. You must weigh the values and decide in this election which is most important to you, to our country, to the world and to God. It is inevitable that true Christians will decide differently.

    And we also must admit that Biblical Values won’t give us the answers to everything. There are political ideologies and values that are not inherently Christian or unchristian. Things such as top down or bottom up economics, big business or big government, public or private education, gun ownership, federal Vs state rights, and private or national health insurance. Christians will find themselves divided over these issues.
     
    We Are a Colony on Earth
    But in the end, as citizens of heaven our greatest     obligation and responsibility is to represent the colony of heaven and to challenge everything that contradicts it. Anyone can be a Democrat or a Republican. Only God’s people can be the church – a colony of heaven that embodies the life of the future here on earth now. This isn’t easy. In fact, the hardest thing to do as an alien is to keep your identity and yet live it gracefully within the dominant culture. But our country needs us to maintain this colony existence and to be a sign to the truth and a prophetic voice in our day.

Sunday, 16 March 2008

  • The Way of the Towel

    Lately, I have been thinking - and preaching - about our way of living in the world. As we have seen in the book, Heroic Leadership, the Jesuits refer to it as nuestro modo de proceder- our way of proceeding, or going about life. I would like to say, our "way of being in the world."

    What I am seeing with fresh eyes is that our "way" is defined by the cross and by the towel. I believe the monastics often referred to it as the "cruciform" life - one modeled after the cross. In John 13 it reminds us that Jesus had all power and knew his place as God and so he took off is outer garment, wrapped a tow around his waist and washed the disciples feet. Jesus said that in humbling himself and washing the disciples feet, he had given them an example and they should do as he had done. In Philippians 2, Paul tells us to have the same mind as Christ, who did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself and became a servant.

    I am certain that we must hold the resurrection and the cross together in tension but it also seems that we are drawn to model our way of being in the world in two opposite directions - either based on the resurrection or the cross. Those modeling life after the resurrection tend to focus on victory, prosperity, conquering, Kingship, winning, while those modeling life after the cross focus on humility, service, sacrifice, and suffering with others.

    Since I know they both matter - cross and resurrection, I would say at the moment that in our thinking one tends to beget the other. If our way of being in the world is modeled after the cross, we see the resurrection bringing us life, freedom and power to fully enter the world as servants and to enter the fray of human suffering in order to humble ourselves that we might lift others. If our way of being in the world is modeled on the resurrection, we tend to see the cross as liberating us from weakness, suffering and the world so that we can enjoy living the victorious, prospering life that is ours in Christ and we call others to enjoy it with us. I am inclined to think that the way of the cross is other centered and the way of the resurrection tends to be, ultimately self-centered. Kind of like either, Christ gave me power that I might serve, or Christ served that I might have power. The difference may sound slight but I believe in the long run it is huge.

    The fundamental question is, "Which does the New Testament offer as the model of our "way of being in this world?"

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

  • Overcoming Fear

    Today, I had an insight about a way to circumvent my fear of failing. It started as I was reading the book, On Becoming A Leader by Warren Bennis. In chapter three titled, "Knowing Yourself", Bennis was relaying the perspective of Marty Kaplan on a learning attitude.

    What occurred to me is that instead of seeing a situation as an opportunity to fail or succeed, I need to see it as an opportunity to learn and grow.

    This is especially important, when I feel afraid to act, because I might fail to get it right or fail to meet others expectations. My fear usually produces high anxiety because my worth is threatened by the possibility of failing. But what if the outcome is not about if I succeed but if I learn. What if each decision or action were not a test of my ability to be right but an opportunity to get hands on experience in learning something new or improving my skills .

    What if challenging situations no longer held the power to determine if I am a success or a failure but only the power to teach me. I feel much better being challenged in my ability to learn than my ability to succeed. If I don't get it right, I am not a failure, I just know what doesn't work, and the next time I will try something different.

    In my mind this takes the power away from life experience to determine my worth and instead gives me the power to make life experience my teacher.

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

  • What Makes Us Vineyard?

    I have been part of the Vineyard movement for a little more than 23 years now. In all this time we have continued to struggle to define ourselves. It seems important to us to know what we are and what we are not. We often speak in terms of identifying our DNA. In essence, we want to know what underlying beliefs, values, and practices define our “modo de proceder” – our way of proceeding – doing things – being in the world. It helps as we try to explain ourselves to others but even more important, as we try to reproduce ourselves in new people and new churches. I would like to suggest 7 things as foundational to the Vineyard.

    1. The Kingdom of God is already here but not yet complete – This gives us a framework from the “future” to understand our present. Maybe, most of all, it allows us to understand the whole of the Christian life within the tension of success with failure; victory with defeat; wholeness with brokenness; joy with suffering.

    2. The church as an eschatological community – Our way of living as a community of God’s people is determined by the future – a future that is becoming a reality in the present. What we will be shapes how we live now. It is God’s vision of the future that defines our life together today.

    3. Real Presence – We expect the whole of our life and ministry to be enlivened and empowered by the real presence of God through the Spirit. We feel his presence; are touched by his love and hear his voice.

    4. Everyone gets to play – Every person is important and has a valuable contribution to make in the church and in the world.

    5. Servant Leadership – The opportunity and privilege to influence others is won by our service not by power. Loving others earns the trust to lead them in the fulfillment of shared vision.

    6. Cultural authenticity – We are not Vineyard because of the commonality of our culture but because of the authenticity of our cultural expression to the context in which we are living.

    7. Practice as a priority over Dogma – While the bible is authoritative for our faith, we are more concerned to live what we know than to know more.

    I would love to hear your thoughts on what makes us who we are as the Vineyard.

    Remember to visit me at michaelpalandro.blogspot.com

Wednesday, 06 February 2008

MichaelPreaches

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    • Name: Michael
    • Country: United States
    • State: Texas
    • Metro: Houston
    • Birthday: 3/30/1953
    • Gender: Male
    • Member Since: 2/9/2005

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