dave lucas

Stealing the inheritance

Matthew 21 

33 Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 35 The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

41 He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

- NIV

We are trying to steal the inheritance and most of us don’t even know it. The side lining of Christianity in modern western society has led to the side lining of God in the western church. Sure we say all the right things in church and even do all the right things. An hour later however we are back out in the world, walking and talking the same way as the rest of it.

Woe betide to anyone who comes along and tries to tell us any different. If someone is not satisfied with us or our church, clearly that person is just a bad fit for the church or does not really understand it. It certainly could not be that our church is broken and needs to be fixed. The truth is no more welcome outside of our agenda now, than it was then.

Sure I know that this parable is speaking directly to the Israelites and how badly they bungled it. Speaking prophetically of the time when the Gentiles too would be included in God’s people. The question I have though is, have we the West not become the Israelites?

If we are not careful God will give his charge of furthering his Kingdom to others. The vineyard is not ours and we cannot steal it no matter how we fool ourselves. God is very clear on what happens to those who think otherwise. Are you giving God his share?

The flat

I did not write anything around Easter this year. I really wanted to but I had nothing to say. I expected a mountain top experience, not for any other particular reason, it had just been the case for many previous Easters, so I just assumed. God always has something to kick me up the bum about and Easter is as good a time as any to do it. This year however there was nothing.

Initially I wondered if I had not done enough to create an “environment” for said experience. This however was replaced by questions. Why I was expecting/desiring said experience? Why must a Christian’s walk be made up by mountain tops and valley bottoms? Is there anything wrong with the flat? Should I be worried that I have been running on it for a while now? Am I running any less a race because I am happy or better put content?

I am man, he is God and we are living life together. Maybe it is enough this Easter that I realise this. God came to earth, became man and died on a cross, rising three days later. All this so I can live life with him and be content.

Self Discovery

The older you get the less you know. This is not technically correct, you do actually know more. You realise however that there is so much more to know. Relatively speaking you feel like you know less. Anyway sometimes you have a moment, an epiphany if you will, where by the grace of God you actually learn something which does not lead to more questions but actually makes you feel like you know more.

I had one of those today; I finally understood how I write. This would have been useful at school but probably would not have helped in those rigid confines. This would have been helpful at university but not useful as I did no writing of any kind. So here I am now trying to resharpen my English skills and God has graciously revealed my muse to sharpen those skills on. I would tell you what I learnt but you would probably tell me that it was obvious (it was not to me), so I wont (I can be a child when I like) and plus the unknown adds to the mystique of the writer.

“That’s nice Dave”, you say though what you are really thinking is I don’t read this blog to find out Dave had a good day and you are right. So here is the hook to keep you reading my blog. I had my moment of epiphany after reflecting on the writing of one of my articles which I thought was particularly good. I won’t say which one; just assume it is the one you like best.

How often do you reflect on your successes?

In the movie “Rounders” Mike McDermott quotes Jack from Confessions of a Winning Poker Player, “Few players recall big pots they have won —strange as it seems — but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career.”

We always analyse our failures but when we are being successful we don’t think to stop and think why. So next time things are going well sit back, relax and reflect. Why it worked this time instead of the many tries before. Who knows? God might actually reveal something about yourself you never realised before. Something you now get to use for the rest of your life. I know God would love nothing more than for me to use mine.

Dense Mediums

“TOBY: It’s called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites
and now you end with the one that’s not like the others. Ready?…
SACHS: God, Toby… Wouldn’t it be great if there was someone around here with communication skills who could go in there and tell them that?” - The West Wing: Somebody’s Going To Emergency, Somebody’s Going To Jail

I have heard some bad sermon’s lately. No, let me correct myself, I have heard some bad preaching lately. You know what I mean, no matter how hard you try to listen, no matter how good the stuff they are saying is, you just can’t.  There is something so completely dense about the medium they have created that, contrary to the speaker’s best efforts and the listener’s best intentions, nothing is getting through.

I have watched a lot of West Wing lately. Two seasons in fact and one thing that has come across to me over and over again is how well it is written and how well it is delivered.  The show does not separate these two things and even better the content of the show illustrates these things.  People are complex and groups of people more so, yet at the same time there is an art and science to communicating with them, that you would do well to master.

The question I have often asked myself though is, “Are you manipulating them?”  You know what I am talking about; we have all done it before.  Acted or said something in such away to produce the outcome we are looking for.  Does the intention matter?  If I am doing it for God’s glory nudging someone in the right direction cannot hurt, can it?  I think this is a healthy debate that should never be stopped.

17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” - NIV

I like this passage, I like it a lot, it places my feet back on the ground when my thoughts seek to set me adrift.  I have often used this as an excuse to be lazy though.  I don’t bother editing my work as heavily as I should because it is the cross’s power right?  I do not practise my delivery or wonder whether the import of my words would sit more heavily on their hearts if I changed that word.

What we say matters and how we say it matters more.  I think we should be careful not to add the latest pop culture wisdom to our work because the wisdom of man has been made foolish in God’s sight.  Yet at the same time I do not think the latest information on children’s retention time in class should be ignored.  We do not speak with words of human wisdom but we do not also speak with words that people will not hear.  I believe wholeheartedly God can use the worst sermon in the world to save and in fact does.  I believe God can use the most poorly written book to bring people back to him and does.  That doesn’t mean I think he should be forced to.

Christ was sent as the propitiation for your sins, so that you may live in relation with a loving triune God.  As Sachs say though “God, Toby… Wouldn’t it be great if there was someone around here with communication skills who could go in there and tell them that?””

Long Term

I was pulling a mug out of the dishwasher at work, mid-cycle, when my boss came in and we started talking about the given merits of different white good brands. As a sidenote, if you are looking for white goods and are willing to spend, buy Miele it is the fire and forget of the white goods market.

What it brought up again and what I have been noticing over the last six months, the last six months where I have spent more money than in my entire lifetime, is that the consumer market is geared for the short term. Everything is priced and marketed such that it encourages you to buy stuff now that is cheaper. This cheaper product will break and force you to go through the same buying/marketing stuff again in 2-5 years. This as per usual got my brain turning over as I find the manipulation of people, for lack of a better word, fascinating.

I came to the conclusion that spending more now, significantly more now, will normally save you significantly in the long run. Not because you will save huge amounts of money, though if you are smart you will at least break even financially, but because that whole time, I am talking about ten years, you own a significantly better product.

Dave’s worldly wisdom aside, this all had a scary parallel to the product “Church”. The church is selling itself as one of those cheap, buy me now items which will break in 2-5 years time and force you to go out and buy a new one. People are so caught up in the short term; they are eating up this cheap church. The church actually thinks it is winning but the real consequences are the quality in churches at the moment is astonishingly bad and the rate of turnover high.

What if people demanded more? What if people decided to commit to a church long term? They decided we will be here ten years, let’s be discerning and find a high quality church. It might cost us more in the short term, we might need to move house, change friendship groups or sacrifice jobs. All this would be worth it though if it meant you were part of a vibrant church for ten years. A vibrant church which changed people lives. Not a cheap church which satisfied people for a while but then they moved on after five years because things were “broken”. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of a vibrant church like that? Tell me why God is not asking you to commit to your church for ten years to see that happen?

Me.Refactor

Today I was doing some code refactoring at work.  “Refactor” you say, “Yes, I know exactly what you are talking about.  I do it all the time.”  If only that was true.

“Code refactoring is the process of changing a computer program’s internal structure without modifying its external functional behavior or existing functionality, in order to improve internal non-functional properties of the software, for example to improve code readability, to simplify code structure, to change code to adhere to a given programming paradigm, to improve maintainability, or to improve extensibility.” - Wiki

Basically you look at a given piece of code and work out how to write it in less lines while making it easier to read and understand.  So to a user nothing has changed but to the developer, the person who has to work on the code, everything has changed.

I think as Christians this is often what God is calling us to do at times and we don’t understand.  Nothing seems to be changing in our life, everything looks the same.  God I am doing the exact same things I was doing last year.

Maybe you need God to be refactoring you.  Realigning you internally to the perfect design he has for you.  So that when he starts building more into your life, your past isn’t a complicated mess that gets in the way.

I can tell you now just as refactored code is a joy to work with, a refactored person is a joy to share life with.

Upgrade

I was discussing with my boss today the future of the software product I am currently working on.  The software is now in the mature stage of it’s life cycle (10 years) and is looking a bit outdated.  It really needs to be thrown away and started again with a newer technology.  This will not happen just yet due to customer demand which begs the question what is worth working on?

I think this happens to us alot as Christians.  We know we are due for an upgrade but the upgrade hasn’t come just yet, so what do we do. I think Christians fall into two common traps here:

1.  I won’t work on anything now and wait for the upgrade (heaven).

2.  I will work on everything now, and will worry about the upgrage when it happens.

One approach ignores the time before the upgrade, the other ignores the upgrade.  But do you know what?  You can do things now which will help the current product (you) and will still be useful when you upgrade (get to heaven).

So if you are not sure what you should be doing right now, why not work on something that you can take with you when you leave.  If you don’t have patience, get some.  If you are out of control, fix it.  If you are not saved, sort it out with God.

There are lots of things you can be doing now which will still matter when you get to heaven but do you know what the best part is?  There is still plenty of time to do things that won’t matter later but which are just plain fun now.  Like making pretty little icons so your software doesn’t look like it’s from the 80s. :)

Purpose

I posted this October 17, 2008 on my previous blog… not much has changed.

Galatians 2

6 As for those who seemed to be important-whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance-those men added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. 8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

- NIV

It is fascinating to hear Paul’s take on what must be considered one of the most influential meetings of Church leaders in church history.  This was the moment when the gospel blossomed, the hidden purposes of God were fully revealed to the light.  No longer was God, a God only for the Jews but now he was a God for all people.  God’s special relationship with the Jewish people was no longer kept under lock and key.  It was accessible to all, no admission fee, no hidden charges.

I have been to a few church meetings in my short life and I am sure Paul must have been leaving a few things out.  Where are the hidden agendas, the constant debate and negotiation, the personal attacks and drawing of battle lines?  The decision made here was far more important and far further reaching in consequence than changing the colour of the back wall of the church.  Yet no comprises were needed to be reached, no oversight committee put in place.  All that was asked, not even demanded, was that the poor continued to be remembered.

I just love this line, at a defining moment in history, when God’s plan for the restoration of humanity is declared the focus is not on infant baptism, communion or any other theology, it is on the poor.  God’s heart is not only to bring his relationship to all people but it is also to bring his heavenly order to all people.  Starting most importantly with the poor, the people who this worldly order is least able to understand and help.

I wonder today if the Church just focused on telling the Good News and helping the poor, that in the face of this overwhelming task, all the other problems and issues, like Peter and Paul, will seem so insignificant that they are not even worth a mention.  Today as we face a global financial crisis and people are looking more and more to themselves and their own, maybe this is a time when it is more important than ever for the Church to faithfully continue the task set before it.

Hello, world!

I started a blog at the end of last year for some personal development.  Let’s just say it didn’t go too well.  I have been encouraged to start again, and I will, this time with a less defined goal and medium.

So here it goes I guess. (the superiority of this blogging software already has me pleased)