The soil...

Luke 8:15 - “But the seed in the good earth — these are the good-hearts who seize the Word & hold on no matter what, sticking with it until there's a harvest.” Good morning, Anne. This is the last of the four scenarios in Jesus’s Parable of the Seed Scatterer, as He is explaining each of those to His Disciples, during their debrief after He publicly shared the Metaphor. If you’re like me, this parable remains fascinating to you, because it is so rich in its layers of real life truth. I can see myself being the seed on the path many times from birth to 20 years old. Then, I was the seed on gravel for the first year or so after I personally encountered Jesus. In the four-plus decades since, I’ve aimed to be the good soil, but often visited the reality of thorns choking my spiritual life. I used to think this was four kinds of people, & even tried to reason which ones were really saved. Now I realize, that these are four different states of soils that my spiritual life can be described by, at any given moment. I may be good soil today… but will I be, next month? It’s not about who’s got salvation & who doesn’t, but about how we are stewarding our relationship with Him. Is it central & preeminent, or slipping to the back burner? Father, please inspire Anne & me to do as described in The Message’s rendering of this verse: Seize Your Word & cling to it, no matter what life throws at us. We don’t wanna be like the panicky drowning person who if flailing their arms so violently that they won’t grab the life ring that’s been thrown to them.

Tom Bourke 12-15-2023

Next door to everywhere...

Right where you are

Matt 9:36-38 - “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed & helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the Harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His Harvest Field.’” Good morning, Anne. The above passage captured the hearts of Ann & me when we were not even a year into our marriage & our new found relationship with Jesus. A “worker” (or “laborer”) is an everyday person who lives out their faith at home, at work, in their neighborhood, & with whomever else they rub shoulders with regularly — without being too weird or forced about it. In polls, more than 80% of believers came to faith over time, in the context of an authentic relationship with one of these “worker” type folks. They realize, mostly in hindsight, that the worker was praying for them & exercising “gentle intentionality” out of sincere love. In our Navigator Vision Statement, there is a phrase that captivates us: “We see workers for The Kingdom, next door to everywhere.” There are many Ann & I love who are NOT in our current geography. Some don’t have a relationship with Jesus yet, while others just need help growing in theirs, like we all do. More than anything else, I pray that someone in their regular orbit is a “worker” who loves people well, with Jesus. Father, please help Anne & me to BE workers with You, & to PRAY regularly for You to raise up more of them… everywhere.

Tom Bourke, Chicago Navigators, Dec 4, 2023

On November 14 Michael Wear came for Brunch!

Michael is the founder, president and CEO of The Center for Christianity & Public Life, and the man had lots to say. Here are a few points:

• “What does it mean to be faithful in and with public things?”

• Michael was hugely influenced by Dallas Willard. “You cannot pursue spiritual formation in part — it has to be pursued in whole.”

• Separation of church and state is not the same as the disappearance of moral knowledge. (Willard or maybe Wear)

• Part of our calling is helping people understand the connection between the kind of person you are and the kind of politics you ascribe to.

• My kingdom is the range of my effective will.

• Everyone has business ethics when things are going well. Everyone is able to balance their accounting book with integrity when they know there’s a surplus.

• “Out of alignment with God’s particular way” is a different way of saying “sin.”

• There is a sense that discipleship has become seen as not essential to being Christian. That is discordant with historical Christianity.

Our close friend and member of our Advisory Team, Adam Sickle, created a podcast, Aspiring Altruists, and he interviewed Phebe Meyer, Michael’s Chief of Staff. Her story is one of beautiful melding of faith, vocation and life. Listen to the interview by clicking below.

Again, from Tom Bourke

Tom and Ann Bourke, US Navigators Staff

Mark 14:31 - “Peter insisted emphatically, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’ And all the others said the same.” Good morning, Anne. I made it home very late last night. I’m bleary eyed, but glad to be here. Did you ever notice how Peter so often is used as an example of what not to do in books & sermons? Whether it’s an object lesson from his looking down at the water & sinking instead of keeping his focus on Jesus so that he could dance on the waves — or this whole thing with his denying Jesus after boasting he would never do such, or many other things. Here’s the thing: The others aren’t criticized because they don’t stick their necks out. Peter is the only one to say, “Can I walk on the water with You?” The other 11 guys were peeing their pants in the boat. He was the first to say he would never deny Jesus, but check out the last sentence in that verse above… they ALL said that & they all DID deny Him. In fact, Peter stayed dangerously close, where he gave into the temptation to lie about knowing Jesus. The others didn’t do that because they were miles away & still running in the other direction! The best part? Jesus chose Peter to lead. I think He liked Peter’s initiative, even though early on it was often impulsive & misguided. Jesus knew He could refine that in Peter. What part of you & me seems raw & wrong sometimes — but may actually be unrefined giftedness, Anne? Father, help us bring who we are & allow You to refine & use us. We don’t need to eliminate risk of failure or pretend to be someone other than who You made us to be.

Thanks, Tom

Just a thought: How do I know what I think I know?

The late Frederick Buechner in his little book, Wishful Thinking, said this:

There are two different ways of describing how you came to know something. One way is to say you found it out. The other way is to say it occurred to you. Reason is involved in both. To say you found out that So-and-So was the best friend you had suggests that you reasoned your way to such a conclusion. To say it occurred to you suggests that although the conclusion was not reached by reason, it was not incompatible with it.

It occurred to you as distinct from you found out suggests knowledge given as distance from knowledge earned. It suggests inner meaning as distinct from outer semblance. For example, I found out that Francis of Assisi gave all his money to the poor, called the sun his brother, and preached sermons to birds. But it occured to me that he must be a saint. Or an idiot.

Revelation means knowledge as grace. Nobody has ever managed to find out much of anything about God.

Classic Buddhism is reasonable, found out, and doesn’t claim to be otherwise. In the Four Noble Truths, Buddha puts it in a nutshell. Like the family doctor, he diagnoses our ailment and prescribed a cure. He says (1) that the name of our ailment is Life, which causes great pain because we know that it always falls to pieces in the end. He says (2) that if we didn’t like Life so much, we wouldn’t mind having it fall to pieces in the end. Therefore, he says (3) the way to get cured of the ailment is to stop clinging to Life as though it were a prize instead of a pain in the neck. Finally, (4) he outlines eight steps for getting out of Life and into Nirvana.

Classic Christianity, on the other hand, is not primarily reasonable or something we have found out or worked out for ourselves. Christ came. He healed people. He forgave people their sins and said to love everybody including your enemy. He dies in a peculiarly unpleasant way, forgiving his executioners. Christianity was born when it occurred to some of the ones who had known him that his kind of life was the only kind worth living, and in some invisible way Christ was still around to help them live it.

Nobody figured Christianity out. It happened. That is what it means to call it a revealed religion— not incompatible with reason maybe, if you give it some thought, but not arrived at primarily by reason either.

Wishful Thinking, by Frederick Buechner, Harper Collins Publishing, 1973, p.97

They way he puts it makes it so much easier to understand. Anne