a drop of water

This Easter I felt conflicted between two goals.  One goal was to solemnly honor and remember Christ’s death on the cross (Good Friday) and the other goal was to celebrate Christ’s rising from the dead (Easter Sunday).   I realized I don’t really know how to do either very well.  I asked Jenn how we can better celebrate the Easter, and she gave me a good perspective.  Aside from the the bunnies and eggs, Easter is about new life in Christ, regeneration, and restoration.  She noted that as we live our busy lives, good habits sometimes are left along the way.

What if, each Easter we rekindled a good habit that our busy lives have forced us to leave behind?  We thought about how when we were dating, we made the habit of inviting friends over and cooking meals for them.  We did it because we wanted to cultivate a communal aspect of our relationship.  We’ve stopped doing that as often, maybe because of distance, or because of busyness, none of which are good reasons.  So we decided to give some new life to an old habit, to celebrate our life in Christ’s resurrection.

Another awesome way to celebrate Easter is to have a baptism!  It was beautiful to see so many church members there to share lunch with, hear the testimonies of how God has worked in the lives of those getting baptized and then celebrating with them.  Here are a few photos that I had the honor and privilege of taking!

Scandalous Grace

A Message from Matthew 20

Jamie Wilson – Coast Vineyard – March 29, 2009

Lost in a Religious Mindset

• Anger and resentment are symptoms of the religious mindset.
• Obedience to God seems empty when we’re stuck in a religious mindset.
• The insecurity of a religious mindset drives us to feel superior towards others.

A Kingdom Full of Grace

• The desperate receive special grace in God’s kingdom.
• Our reward comes out of the Father’s heart.
• We all have the potential to be offended by God’s grace.

Seeing Life through Eyes of the Kingdom

• Pay attention to the overlooked.
• Expect God’s generosity, even when it seems too late.
• Celebrate grace wherever we find it.

A few reactions, thoughts and conclusions:

Title - It almost seems scandalous, to describe grace as scandalous.  Scandalous makes me think of disgrace, moral depravity, shame and those are words that I would not typically associate with grace.  However, scandalous can also describe the shock, the ridiculousness and the undeserving characteristics of God’s grace.

Section 1 – What does it mean to have a religious mindset?  I guess it means to have a mindset that does not consider God’s grace.  Instead of focusing on what God is doing, the focus is on what we are doing.  In the first point, with the focus on ourselves and what we’ve accomplished, we gain a sense of entitlement that grows into anger and resentment at someone who, by our discernment, has accomplished less, yet receives more.    In the second point, our focus is on proving the worth of our own life, instead of an expression and response of love to God who first loved us.  And in the third point, our focus is on our position in relation to others, providing us with grounds to elevate ourselves above others.

Section 2 - Jamie pointed out that the day workers in the story were still waiting for work at 5pm.  They were desperate since most workers would probably head home earlier and give up on work for the day.  It is beautiful to consider that the source of grace, the amount of grace is rooted in the father’s heart.  It was also a good mental check to realize that we can be offended by God’s grace; when someone who seemingly needs the grace more than me, gets the same amount that I do, seemingly underservingly.

Section 3 - These are such world changing visions for how life could be lived daily.  Being sensitive to the people who are overlooked for whatever reason — class, status, belief, gender, education, race, ethnicity, theological camp, etc; expectantly depending on God’s generosity to meet the needs around us even when we’ve seen God rejected and rejected his grace ourselves; to actively looking for God’s grace wherever we see it in order to celebrate it without the cycnicism, anger and resentment that cripples the life infusing power in God’s grace — it is visions like these that I want my life to be built on.

Extravagant Faith (A Message from Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23)

March 8th, 2000 – Coast Vineyard - Jamie Wilson

A Spiritual Check-Up: Which kind of soil are you?

• The dry path question: Am I closed to, open to, or learning to follow the messaage of Jesus?
• The rocky field question: Am I willing to sacrifice to see more of God’s kingdom?
• The thorny soil question: Is there a fear or desire in my life choking God’s work?
• The good soil question: How much multiplication do I want?

Living for Maximum Return

• Our job description is to sow the message of the kingdom.
• Most of the seed won’t bear fruit.
• We get the highest yield when we sow everywhere (the sower does not know where the wind, weeds, rocks and thorns are…)
• It takes a long time to see real results.
• There is plenty of supply.  There is much room for extravagance in sowing.

The question that I am left with is this: how do we sow, what does it look like?

Maybe that has an obvious answer, and I’m just missing it.  I think that sowing looks different for everyone and must be integrated with your personality, your occupation, your culture, and your calling.  For me it seems like a lot of sowing would be sharing / painting the vision of the Kingdom of God for other people to see.  This leaves a huge blank canvas for each of us to creatively color in, because each of us experiences the Kingdom of God uniquely within our contexts.  I invite you to comment on how you sow the vision of the Kingdom of God in your work place, in your family, with your friends…

March 1, 2009 – Coast Vineyard – Michelle Wilson

The Kingdom of God is Now.

• The Kingdom of God has already come. – “the kingdom God is upon you”
• The Kingdom of God has yet to come in full. – We live in a tension where we hope and take part in the realization of the kingdom.
• The Kingdom of God is coming right now. – We are in the middle of the greatest event ever happening.

The Kingdom of God is New.
To enter into it, we need to:

• Take off what we think we know.
• Put on what God is doing now.

The Kingdom of God cannot be contained by our old selves.
To become carriers of it, we must:

• Ask to be made new.
• Ask for the kingdom to come within us.
• Expect turbulence (don’t confuse this with the actual presence of God).
• Expect to be used by God (bring healing and freedom).

For me, this message challenged me to consider tangible ways on how to bring the Kingdom of God into the lives and places that I come in contact with.  Three questions helped me visualize this idea.

1. Write down names of people or places that I want to see the Kingdom of God come into.  Draw a box around those words.
2. Write down truths, promises, experiences of the Kingdom of God that you have heard of or believe outside the box.
3. Connect the words that are outside the box with words that are inside the box as you see fit.  On those lines write ideas and actions about how to make them a reality.

This illustration can continue to grow as we learn and experience more of the Kingdom of God and how it works.  If I keep my drawing in my head it helps me be more consciously prayerful throughout the day.

Here is a reproduction of the sermon handout from Coast Vineyard, on Sunday, February 22, 2009.  Pastor Jamie gave the first message in a series focused on the Kingdom of God.