randalevan's blog

The long journey to reach our starting point

Jacquie and I began our most recent adventure about four years ago. We felt it was time to come "home" to California after having been away for about sixteen years in Spain and New England. That was when we started walking. Where would we end up? What would we be doing? All we knew was that we were committed to loving God, loving our neighbors, and wanted to serve in whatever meaningful way we could both in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Spain.

My trip to Boston

I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Boston to connect with some old friends. My journey began with Don & Nancy - great people and wonderful pastors of the Vineyard Church in Kingston. The weather was great my first day in New England. We went out for lunch at the Blue Eyed Crab Grill and Raw Bar in Plymouth and we all ordered the same thing...a crab cake sandwich with some kind of sauce that included jalapeños:
On the way to the restaurant, I saw this great warning label above the storm drain...
I bet you have never seen one of these in California before!

Comparison: another obstacle to joy

The preacher pissed me off at church yesterday. It wasn't her fault. She did a fine job. In fact, I encourage you to listen to what Susan had to say. (Go to: http://www.vcfp.org/sermons.html, then select the sermon for May 22nd entitled, "Greed is Good".)

The reason I became angry was because the topic - money - is a sensitive one for me & Jacquie right now. Our whole world (*that, I recognize, is a bit of an exageration!) has been turned upside down. I spent the last 20+ years devoting my life to my calling: pastoral ministry. While I still feel called to be a pastor, I am currently choosing to not be paid for it. (*For more on this, please check-out my April 27th post: Overcoming Conflict (More on "A Million Miles...".)

So, when the sermon began and the preacher started talking about money, I began to celebrate my own little pitty party. Boy, am I glad no one else was invited!

no church without the reign of god

i started reading volf's after our likeness: the church as an image of the trinity this week. for any of us who have been actively involved in a local church, we know how hard it is to stay actively involved! in this brief quote, volf reminds us of the identity of the church, and as amazingly impossible as it sounds, how it is the vehicle (paul the apostle would say "body") that god has chosen both to reveal himself to the world and get his work done.

Bonhoeffer on Community, part II.

Here are some other quotes from Bonhoeffer's Life Together, chapter 1:

"One is a brother to another only through Jesus Christ. I am a brother to another person through what Jesus Christ did for me and to me; the other person has become a brother to me through what Jesus Christ did for him.  This fact that we are brethren only through Jesus Christ is of immeasurable significance. Not only the other person who is earnest and devout, who comes to me seeking brotherhood, must I deal with in fellowship. My brother is rather that other person who has been redeemed by Christ, delivered from sin, and called to faith and eternal life. Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us. This is true not merely at the beginning, as though in the course of time something else were to be added to our community; it remains so for all the future and to all eternity." (p.25.)

Bonhoeffer on Community

In my last post I mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, Life Together, and encouraged those who wanted to go deeper to check out this classic on the Christian Life.  Well, I imagine most of us simply don't have the time to do that...so I want to give you some quotes that continue to impact me from the first chapter of Bonhoeffer's classic.  Here goes...

it's hard to keep going to church

I have been a pastor for a long time.  One of the things I have found to be true as a follower of Jesus is this: those of us who choose to actively engage with Him together with others in a healthy local church have a much more enjoyable, productive, adventure-filled, "challenged-to-go-beyond our-comfort-zone" life than those who try to go it alone.  (*I don't have time to define "healthy" here, but can recommend a great book if you would like to go deeper.  It is "Life Together" by Bonhoeffer. Pay particular attention to Chapter 1 entitled "Community".)

And as a pastor, I have also found something else to be true: it is really hard to continue to be actively involved in a local church!  This has always been the case...ever since Jesus called 12 disciples together to form the first Church.  Why is it so? While there are many, many reasons, I will mention only two: 1. Wherever there are people, there will be conflict, and, 2. Wherever there are Christians, there will be people with unrealistic expectations placed upon other people...I would suggest greater expectations than they place on their work or school associates, and sometimes more than their own family members.

what is going to make me happy?

There's a story in the Gospel of Mark about a paralytic man who is carried to Jesus by his friends on a mat.  (*To read the story, go to Mark chapter 2, beginning with verse 1.)  One of the remarkable things that happens is that Jesus heals the guy!  But He does something else...something that the man didn't even ask Jesus to do:  He forgives him.  Why did Jesus do that?

jesus makes us bigger

a friend and fellow pastor, liz milner, recently completed an internship at a local jail and the experience stretched her faith a lot. as i read her personal evaluation, i felt encouraged to see people in a different way, to believe that jesus is present even when our world feels like it is falling apart, and to face my fears with more courage. i have copied her evaluation below.

¿whatever happened to the american dream?

I was shocked to read in yesterday's Mercury-News that there are over 13% of Americans who are living in poverty.  How can that be?  Whatever happened to the American Dream?  Sounds more like a nightmare to me!

The problem is so large and complex that there is certainly nothing I can do about it.  (*I used to think this way, but somehow, I don't feel like I have a "free pass" to ignore this awful truth about our country anymore.)

I wonder what the church I go to can do about it. If the Lord's Prayer were to be answered, especially the part that says, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven", what that would look like?  I don't think there are going to be any people living in poverty when God's will is always done on the earth!  Lord, what would You have each one of us do?

  (*To read the article, please go to: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13307046?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1