Reed Mueller

I can’t remember for sure, but I think I must have been around six or so when I got my first real bicycle. Of course I’d had a hand-me-down, training-wheeled bike before I got this one (I was the youngest child in my family after all) but this was different. It came shiny, new and never before ridden from the store and it was all mine! I was so excited and proud to have it and I remember thinking how cool it was and how cool I would be riding it. It had high handle bars and a banana seat and I was sure I’d look like those guys I’d seen riding Harleys, without the scruffy beard that is.

While I was truly grateful for my parent’s gift, I quickly discovered that I had a problem: I didn’t know how to ride it. It had no training wheels, was much bigger than the little bike I’d been riding, and I was afraid. Enter my dad who, on a cool and cloudy Oregon morning, walked me and my new bike out to the dead end road on which we lived.

“Go ahead, get on.” he said.

“But I’m a little scared, dad.” I replied.

“It’s okay, Reed, I’ll be here holding on until you get your balance.”

With that promise from my dad to give me courage, I went for it. I struggled onto that banana seat, struggled to find the peddles, and then struggled to get that bike moving forward. And I was successful! It felt great knowing that I was moving forward and even better knowing that dad was keeping that bike from tipping over.

He was faithful to his word to me that day. I don’t know how long he ran along beside me, except to say that he was there holding on as long as I needed him too. And then, when I was ready, he let go and ran along beside me as I balanced on my own, gaining confidence with every revolution of the peddles. My dad was there that morning. He was there holding on when I couldn’t balance on my own and he was there right beside as I continued to ride under my own power.

In thinking back on that day, I remember feeling grateful for my new bike; that thing I’d just received was my focus as a little kid. Now, some 34 years later, I’m still grateful, but for something else. That new bike is now old and abandoned long ago to time and the elements. So I’m not grateful for that it (I’d look pretty silly riding it now). Rather, I’m grateful that my dad was there that morning. I’m grateful that he sustained my balance. I’m grateful that he ran beside me when I was ready. That morning represents one of the best memories I have from childhood!

17Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! 19The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights. (For the choir director: This prayer is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.) Habakkuk 3:17-19 (NLT)

Sometimes in life we become grateful for, and find security in, the wrong things – the stuff we have, the paychecks we receive, that status we’ve attained. Don’t get me wrong, they are gifts for sure, but to be grateful in only the gifts, rather than the one who gives them is missing the point and missing the true joy.

Just like time with my dad was the true and lasting gift of that morning so long ago, so our God, who helps us balance every day if we ask him and who runs beside us our whole lives, is our true gift every day. All the stuff we think we can rely on will one day either let us down or be abandoned by us along the way. But in the end, though everything else will go away, He will still be there with us!

Be glad today not because you have stuff, no matter how shiny it is, but because your God, the gift beyond all circumstances, has you!

Chelsea Reardon (left) and Chris Spanjer (right) serving meals in Mhlosheni

Just a quick post so you can save the date. Our 2009 Mhlosheni “Go Team” has returned from Africa and will be sharing their experiences with the church on July 12th, 10:30am (here). You won’t want to miss the message they’ll bring to us about God and his work in Mhlosheni, Swaziland.

I really respect the eight individuals who gave of their time and financial resources to go share hope and friendship with the people of Swaziland. Not only that, I respect their families for making the sacrifice of having them so far away for a period of time. And it goes without saying that none of this would have happened without those who supported our team financially and through prayer. So thanks one and all.

Can’t wait to have the team over to our house this Friday. Should be a lot of fun to hear the stories shared as we look through the pictures they’ve all taken. Hope I BBQ well for them!

John the Baptist is an interesting guy (and not because he lived in the desert, dressed in itchy garb, and ate locusts). He was interesting for other, more important, reasons. In one sense, he was the very first witness to the coming of the Messiah, leaping in his mother’s womb when Mary, Jesus’ mother, entered into his midst (Luke 1:41). But he was not only special from the beginning because he recognized something remarkable about Jesus very early on, he was special because God had a specific, and very important, role for him to play in God’s unfolding story of redemption.

Since before his conception, the plan of God for John’s life had been set. He was to be born into a family that had been childless for so long that it should not have been possible for his mother and father to conceive (Luke 1:7,13). Not only that, but an angel informed his parents that John was to be a great prophet who prepare the way for the coming of the long awaited Christ. He was to be the one who would call his people to repent in advance of the coming of the Lord (Luke 1:14-17). What a life of promise laid out before his parents since before the day he was born.

What it must have been like to grow up in the shadow of such a promise! Imagine being told, as John probably was, that God had a special role for him in his life. Imagine being John, knowing that you would be used by God to bring a nation back to God, and not only that, but to do this in order to reveal to them their long awaited Messiah. Imagine all this and then read these words:

And John the Baptist grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. Luke 1:80 (ESV)

As it implies in that verse, John, having already waited three decades to fulfill his role… waited some more. He went into the wilderness, knowing all that he knew about his role, and waited until the day of his public appearance. In other words, he waited until he was prompted by God at just the right time to begin his ministry. John spent his whole life preparing for the moment God would use him most. This is not to say that God was not with him when he wasn’t “using him most” but rather that God was with him in the quiet and lonely times preparing him – as John would let him – for the moment he would be needed most in the kingdom.

How are we at waiting?

Sometimes in life we wonder where the heck God is and what the heck God is doing. We wonder why we’re not playing a larger role in the kingdom. In light of John’s life, could it be that God knows what he’s doing and will in time set his plan for our lives in motion? Could it be that God has us in a less public role precisely so we can prepare for the moment we’re needed in the game? We practice, we grow, we become faithful in the wilderness in order to be ready to launch into action at just the moment God needs us to. These times could occur when we’re called to share our faith, to parent a difficult teen, to serve our neighbor in a remarkably giving way, to lead a group or mission trip, to lead a church or a movement, or in a myriad of other ways.
Whatever our role is we must faithfully wait on the Lord in wilderness in order to be ready for the tasks he will call us to in public. Just like John, who was faithful in the desert before he was active in public, we should wait upon the Lord. This is easy to say, but so difficult to apply (at least for me). Yet, even though it’s difficult and we often feel like we’re spinning our wheels, our desert times can prepare us for the moments God calls us to appear publically for him.

Lord, sometimes we are frustrated by the degree of influence you have granted us. We know that this is not your fault, but rather a reflection of your plan. Prepare us for our roles by helping us to seek you in our ‘desert times.’ Shape us, as your people; help us to grow in the knowledge and love of you and your Son. Help us to do this so that when the time comes we can be ready to serve you.

Traveling with you,
Reed

16Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” …38And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” 39Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. 40You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” Genesis 41:38-40 (ESV)

Genesis 37-50 tells the story of Joseph, who after having been sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, eventually rose to great power in the Egyptian government. Of course, his route to this place wasn’t easy. Along the way he was met by difficult circumstances galore (like being sold into slavery by jealous brothers, falsly accused of impropriety, unjustly imprisoned, and forgotten by those he’d helped). In spite of all of this, or perhaps because of it, Joseph became the man he was because he knew the limitations of his own ability and the limitless power of God.

His statement in v16 is not artificially self-deprecating, rather it is an accurate observation that God is the one with the power and the answers. It is a lesson I need to realize because it is true. It is not the smartest, the best connected or the most ambitious who is of greatest benefit to his world, rather, it is the one who is humbly connected to his God that brings the best good to others! We can see this in Pharoah’s response v38. Notice that while “all the Pharaoh’s horses and all the Pharaoh’s men” weren’t up to the task, the one who was listening to God’s lead was.

What provided the foundation from which Joseph would be part of saving a nation from famine (and the consequences of it, like poverty, crime, illness, and death)? It wasn’t striving for himself and it wasn’t proclaiming his own smarts. Instead, it was waiting upon God to provide the answer, who used even the evil in Joseph’s past experiences to place him where he needed to be at just the right time and with just the right heart.

I need to be like Joseph. I need to remember that I will bring the best good for those near to me, those for whom I’m accountable, if I humbly submit to God’s lead and his word to me/us. Then, and only then, can I truly be shown what I need to see… to bring lasting good into this world.

Father, keep me in the mindset that Joseph was in. Keep me in the place he was at. Joseph was a man who humbly knew that all true wisdom and knowledge comes from you. I pray that my attitude would be his so that I might possibly be used to save others. It is the one who is connected humbly to you that brings the best good to those near to them… help me to be that!

As promised, I’m going to tackle the very difficult issue of abortion and the very real case of pregnancy secondary to forced intercourse like rape and incest. As I do, please know that I have not considered this in a vacuum; that is, this very situation is reported to be the reason for obtaining an abortion for at least 10,000 women per year (Guttmacher Institute Study, p. 297). This is a substantial number of women who have been violated and who are faced with this almost unimaginable situation. We need to consider this in anything we might say on the issue: real people have been hurt greatly in our broken and unredeemed world.

The typical ‘pro-life’ response to this question is something akin to saying (yes, I present it as a caricature here) “Don’t have an abortion now that you’re pregnant because two wrongs don’t make a right.”

This (somewhat callous) response is natural if one is working from the typical argument that the embryo or fetus is a person and shouldn’t be terminated as a result because they are a) innocent and b) have rights. I talked a lot about why I think this isn’t the foundational line of thinking we Christians should hold to, as a people called to faith, on the abortion issue. That goes for the issue in general, as discussed in my message over the weekend and in my post the other day, as well as for the issue in this specific context. Yet others, who are to be respected, make this a chief line of argumentation. This is understandable and works better in secular debate but misses (I think) the very gift we must offer women facing this circumstance. It also misses the best of what we are called to as a people of faith.

The gift we have to offer – a great gift indeed – is best seen in retrospect. Not a retrospective look at how this has played out in any woman’s life but rather how it worked out in one man’s life. This man, who was a few years younger than me, was brutally tortured and then unjustly executed. To say that he was unjustly executed is an understatement; he was completely innocent of the crimes of which he was accused. Yet this man, while being tortured, held no anger in his heart against his torturers, but rather, sought their good. Of course I’m talking about Jesus, crucified on a cross.

To be tortured on the cross was an unimaginable horror and yet, because of his trust in our Father, Jesus endured it and remarkable things happened as a result. The bible says that we were redeemed (Romans 3:23-25) because Jesus refused to cut short our Father’s redemptive plan (Matthew 26:39; Romans 3:26). Not only that, but all of creation was redeemed because Jesus refused to go his own way (Colossians 1:20). And in a remarkable turn, even the very image of injustice itself – the cross – was redeemed from being a symbol of oppression, injustice, and pain and was transformed into the very picture of hope, justice, and salvation for billions of souls. All this happened through as Jesus trusted in His Father’s power and love. Jesus endured that cross because of the hope and joy set before him – the hope of a redeeming Father on the other side (Hebrews 12:2).

The gift that we have to offer any woman facing this situation is this hope. Hope in the redemptive power of our God beyond any circumstance, beyond any cross, beyond any wrong even rape or incest. The gift that we have to offer – and which we must offer – is hope in the God who can bring good into the world and into our lives even beyond a terrible evil that has occurred. I have read of women for whom such redemption has occurred either through the blessing their child became to them personally or to others through adoption. Perhaps this is the healing they needed, not the healing of forgetting the past, but the healing that comes as God changes the meaning of the past by working in the present to bring good from evil.

As the people of Christ, we are not about what people shouldn’t do but rather about the fact that there is good news to be found in Jesus. To offer only the former or even mostly the former is to fail in our call to be a blessing in our world. And the good news is that we know a God who redeems not only individuals but the broken pieces of our history, corporate and individual. It is to this God that we must point everyone. It is to this loving God which we must especially point those who’ve been trampled under by the feet of injustice. And then, in reflection of this redeeming God we must love those in need as he loves them, with a radical, self-sacrificing, healing love, expressed daily on behalf of another.

There is no easy answer here. But the answer we have to give – Christ and the healing that comes through faith and trust in him even in this – we must give. To anything less is to cheat another human being from the hope we find so transforming.

This week we continued CRCC’s ‘Neglected’ series with a message on the contentious issue of abortion. As I said at the beginning of the message (posted here soon) I know that there are those in our church who hold to what our society deems a pro-life position. I also know that there are others in our congregation who strongly support what our society deems to be a pro-choice position. But most importantly, I was aware as I entered into this topic that there were women in our midst for whom this was anything but theoretical; that is, I knew there were women in attendance who had faced this issue in their own lives and opted either to carry the child to term or elect to have an abortion. All this, the raw experiences and emotions in the room together with the varying opinions on the subject, made it all the more important in my mind to do my best to present a thoughtful, biblical position that would offer a chance to reframe the debate as it stands in our society.

As it stands in our society the debate is really about personal rights. The two key words there are “personal” and “rights.” That is, persons are deemed to have rights under our constitution. The abortion debate, in taking up this concept, focuses on two main issues in response:

• When does a person become a person (people vary in their answers) because only persons have rights?
• When two person’s rights conflict, who’s rights trump the other’s?

These are the questions – as I understand it – that Roe v. Wade deals with. And they are fine, I suppose, from a secular perspective. But they don’t reflect the foundational biblical lens through which I believe we should be looking as we seek to navigate this issue faithfully.

In the first place, the question of when a person becomes a person has been answered differently by faithful Christians down through history. This is not because some people are shying away from the bible while others are holding to it, but rather because the biblical evidence on the issue of when exactly “personhood” begins is open to several valid lines of interpretation. Pillars like St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas all thought that “ensoulment,” or what we might today call ‘personhood,’ began at varying points after conception (here’s an adequate and readily accessible overview). We will never, this side of heaven, come to unanimity on when personhood begins. Besides, whether or not a wombed child is a person isn’t the most basic question, here, from a Christian’s viewpoint. I don’t believe that abortion is wrong on the basis that it is the killing of a person. Yep, you read that correctly (reread it carefully and notice that I don’t say that it is right to kill a person at any stage of development; rather, I said that there is another more foundational reason that abortion is called a sin down through church history). More on that in a moment.

But first, my second point is that as Christians we should really reconsider whether we really have ‘rights’ to do anything we want or not. While our government grants rights to us as its citizens the case can be made that Christians have willingly given up their own rights and instead have committed to following Jesus’ lead in every aspect of our life, which includes how they use their bodies (e.g., see 1 Corinthians 6:13 with regard to sexuality and Philippians 1:20 with regard to life and death and everything in between). More radically, a case has been made by Stanley Hauerwas that as Christians it is not only Christ who has a say with what we do with our bodies, but other Christians as well (note: while I bristle at his language about the non-sacredness of life, I recommend this though-provoking article based upon a talk Hauerwas gave to his denominational leaders about abortion… it challenged, and shaped, my thinking on this issue).

In light of this, I am pro-choice: every Christian has choice as to whether or not they will give to Christ his choice over how they use their body. Do we always? Certainly not, but this is the ideal.  Which gets us closer to the foundational reason why I believe abortion to be wrong.

So what is wrong with abortion? Two things, I think.

Foundationally, I believe abortion to be wrong because we are not, by making that choice, acting in faith: we are not trusting that God is at work in every pregnancy (not that he caused every pregnancy, but rather that he is soveriegnly at work in shaping every wombed child; see Psalm 139, which first about God and his handiwork and only second about when we might think life begins). So, in a sense, it is wrong because it is lacking faith, which is what every person is called to in relation to God.

Tangentially, abortion points to the wrongness of how the church has been the church. We haven’t even approached the call to radically love the other, to bear the burdens of the other, in the form of any woman facing this choice. The truth is that women with an adequate social, economic, and education foundation make the choice of an abortion far less frequently than those without such support (compare the projected decline in abortions using legislative vs/or economic means). I am convinced that we must as a church do a much better job supporting those who need our help: this includes not only the unborn but the women who carry them. We must stand for, not against, women in difficult circumstance. We must lobby for better support from our government on their behalf. But most importantly, we must be ready to offer 100% support, in the form of love, financial assistance, education, or housing, to any woman who has need in this area.

More on this tomorrow when I begin to deal with the questions given to me after service… the first of which is this: “I understand that abortion is wrong for birth control methods, but what about in cases of rape or incest… is it really wrong then?”

I just discovered a site that provides a simple listing of candidate votes and positions on many issues (based upon archived quotes from them). They purport to be non-partisan but I won’t vouch for someone I don’t know, of course. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting site, so research up… at issues2000.org.

I’m so glad that someone asked that we talk about politics in our Neglected series! It has resulted in robust discussion for many in the church, and for the most part I’ve heard the dialogue has been respectful! This is one of the things I believe we are to be able to do as a church family (Philippians 2:14-15, NIV).

As I studied our for the message, Romans 13:1-7 became quite important in my thinking about politics and the government. And yet, I still don’t quite believe it! How could Paul call for the Christians in Rome (and beyond) to respect and honor the authorities over them (namely, Nero). To be honest, some down through the centuries have tried to soften this call by suggesting that Paul is talking about respecting not individual leaders but rather one’s given state, rather than its specific leaders, or even the abstract idea of the state. However, I don’t believe this does justice to the intent of the passage. Nevertheless, it is debatable.

More important to my thinking – and a challenge to my typical voting patterns – was the idea embedded in the passage that the purpose of government (from Paul’s perspective) is to bring about justice. Paul describes this in three ways:

• Justice in the sense of reinforcing/promoting pro-social personal behaviors (”do what is good and you will receive his approval” – Romans 13:3)
• Justice in the sense of punishing/suppressing anti-social personal behaviors (”if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain” – Romans 13:4)
• Justice in the sense of bringing (not just reinforcing) good into the social commons (”he is God’s servant to bring you good.” – Romans 13:4)

In a sense, what I see here is a mix of conservative and liberal understandings of the government’s role in society. While I had not seen these resources prior to my message, I’d recommend both this article on subsidiarity and the limits of government and this article on the good a government is to bring into society. Interesting tension here in these articles and here in this passage.

In the end, I believe that my study has made my vote more difficult while simultaneously simplifying it. It has been simplified because I am now a one issue voter: I’ll use my vote to promote a just government – a government that approximates the outcomes Paul discusses above. But it is now, in this single issue, a much more complex process for me because issues of justice include not only concerns for how we care for the unfed, unnoticed, unborn and unhealthy, they also include the issue like economic and educational equity, global violence and injustice in other lands, and on and on and on.

My hope is that your vote has become more difficult, too, and because of that you will study the scriptures deeply about government and and the call for justice … and that you will study the candidates and measures deeply as a result … and that you will most of all pray deeply both before and after your vote.

My head is swimming in theology and politics, so I needed to come up for air and offer a few real practical thoughts.

First, get educated by watching last night’s presidential debate (the last of them for this go around). Nothing can substitute for hearing them speak for themselves. All in all, I found most of the debate helpful toward this end:

Second, get educated by fact checking all the stuff the candidates said (and that their ads, surrogates, partisan pundits say). My favorite resource for this is factcheck.org, which I’ve found to be partial to one thing: calling the candidates, regardless of their affiliation, on their misuse of the facts. Use the radio and its talk show hosts for entertainment… but don’t make decisions based upon what you hear until you made sure the claims are actually backed up by hard facts. FactCheck can help you in that (and if you’ve already watched the debate, here’s their initial analysis of the candidates inaccuracies). Also available is InQuotes, a new Google service that compares actual quotes from the two major candidates on a variety of issues.

Third, get educated by comparing your views on your most important issues by using a tool like glassbooth.org. What I like about this one is that you can weight some issues more than others, or others not at all. After selecting your issue weightings, you’ll take a short quiz. Together, the weightings and your answers provide a correlation report with all the candidates and their stands on your issues. It’s not perfect of course, but it can help you consider the candidates in a little different light.

Okay, enough for now… back to the message prep for my second message from the ‘Neglected Series’ on politics. If you missed my first message on politics, here it is: Neglected, part 5: “Political Intrusion” Audio : Discussion

Today, the power of personal publishing is working full force to educate more than 12.4 million readers (as of this moment) about what they can do to make a dent in poverty. It’s been interesting seeing this pop up on some of the blogs that I follow (like this one). Unfortunately, I’ve yet to see one of the church leadership blogs I read post anything on the subject. This is regrettable as we – the church – should be in the lead on such things (e.g., Matthew 25:32-46; James 1:27; Micah 6:8). But this is beside the point. The real question is “What can we do?” So let’s ask it…

What can you do to make a difference in a world so full of poverty? Let me suggest three things:

1. Educate yourself on what others are doing for just over a dollar a day. Read just one or two of the posts on Michael Thelander’s A Song of Africa blog and you’ll see how much of a difference can be made in a life halfway across the globe through the simple gift of child sponsorship.
2. Then, if you’ve not yet chosen to sponsor a child in Mhlosheni, Swaziland, consider it. About $36.00 per month will sustain them, their household (if they’re fortunate enough to have parents), and their community even in the midst of severe drought and an overwhelming HIV/AIDS infection rate. If on the other hand you’re already sponsoring a child from Mhlosheni, pray for them, write them, and consider a “gift notification” which could supply even more for your child. For help on either of these options, email erin [at] teammueller [dot] com.
3. Finally, get your hands dirty locally. This quarter our community ministries team is hosting a work day at SnowCAP, a local community food pantry, on the morning of November 8th. Email rickberry [at] columbiaridge [dot] org for details and to sign up. If that’s not your idea of fun, there are many other volunteer opportunities in the area – email me and I can help find some for you!

There is no doubt that you can alleviate a little suffering…and that together we can alleviate much suffering! The question is, will we?