- Hebrews 10:39

In Jerusalem the crowds had gathered from all around the Roman Empire to celebrate passover, some had traveled for days or weeks before reaching the city walls. Some had come for religious reasons, some simply out of tradition and others just to see and partake in the excitement of being in such a place with so many other people or because they were told “Jews like to party”.

On Easter sunday the crowds will gather again much like they did two thousand years ago. There will be those who have traveled across the states, those who took extra vacation time just so they can be with family. They will file into church wearing the best of whatever they own, some come for what they consider religious reasons, others will come for the sake of an age old family tradition and still others come confused with how chocolate, baskets and bunnies have to do with the once a year church visit that is awkward, boring and often feels meaningless.

Back two thousand years ago, to those outside of the Jewish faith the passover was just a time when everyone ate nasty yeast-less bread and rehashed the story of how Moses led them out of Egypt. It carried little meaning to those who did not understand the significance of how God had led his people out of slavery and toward the promise land. I imagine the routine of the passover became mundane and faded to just something families did every year. It lost it’s meaning even though the story was told. Even in my own life I have been guilty of showing up on Easter morning bored and uninterested. There are times I’ve felt offended by the fact that people are more fake about their faith on Easter and Christmas than any other time of the year. It’s as if they do not choose to believe any other time.

Following Jesus is not a once a year thing.

In the crowds of people that had gathered in Jerusalem for the passover there were those who had come because they believed this was the time that Jesus was going to rise up as their fearless leader and over throw the Romans. There were those who had followed him simply because he healed them or satisfied their hunger. There were those who followed just for the excitement of the crowds that seemed to be amazed by him. But there were a few who really believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the savior of his people. Not a savior over Roman oppression but a savior over sin, guilt, shame and separation from God.

For those few who really truly believed they were going to quickly learn that following Jesus was not going to be a once a year thing, it was not going to be an easy thing and it was not always going to be that exciting either. When Jesus was arrested the people that were following Jesus seemed to shrink. There were those who had shouted “Hosanna in the highest” when he had entered the city but found themselves screaming “Crucify Him” by the end of the week. There were those who wanted to follow Jesus when it seemed safe, comfortable and the popular thing to do, but when things changed they were quick to shrink back and run away.

People are no different today as they were two thousand years ago. There are still those who only follow Jesus because he healed them or satisfied their hunger, there are those who think the crowds that gather on Christmas and Easter are exciting, and those who come once a year because they respect anyone who does something to cause a holiday.

But who are we.

Who are we in this story. I love how the writer of Hebrews speaks of the supremacy of Christ and assures his reader that Jesus is the son of God. He reminds them of why Jesus came to live and died and rose again. Then he goes on to speak of those few that continued to believe in Jesus after many had given up…

“Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised… But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.”

• Hebrews 10:32-36,39

After Jesus death and resurrection it was still not easy to follow Jesus. There was no once a year follower of Jesus. It was either all in or all out. The risk was high and the cost was at times your own life, yet there were those who did not shrink back. When Jesus was crucified there were many who just gave up, they shrunk back, he did not do what they thought he was going to do so they gave up on him. I believe there are those who think they are following Jesus, but know nothing about him and there are those who as they get to know him and everything he did they choose to leave him, but we do not have to be those people.

We have a choice to follow Jesus everyday, learn more about him not for the sake of knowing facts, but for a relationship with him.

The early followers of Jesus did not always know what they were going to be getting into or what God was calling them to do, however, they made a choice to follow any way. Following Jesus is a learning process. It takes time, we have no need to shrink back or throw away our confidence. For those who believe we have ten thousand reasons to tell the world about Jesus. There will always be those who only come to church on Easter or Christmas, but there is no reason that that should be the only time all year that they hear or see Jesus.

We are not of those who shrink back from carrying the good news to the world. The good news of love and hope. The world two thousand years ago was in desperate need of hope and an example of love. Jesus calls us to carry that same message to our world that is longing for some hope and is often confused about love. We need to remind those who believe that we are not of those who shrink back.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

We took the liberty of wanting to sample some local tail while we were there, and bumped into a new encounter that went completely awry. I won’t go into details, but communication was lost at multiple points on both ends, and it just left us a ruined, touchy, mess come the end of the weekend. we would be fighting one moment and acting like “that couple” the next. There were moments where we could no even be normal, and left the poor man on the plane next to us very uncomfortable. The thing we both realized however, is that we were both blaming ourselves, never wanting to let the other feel guilty or hurt over their actions, and i think it says a lot for us. we went through a lot of crap in the past few days. He lost his top space for a bit, i lost my slave sppace, and for a couple who that is all they ever knew, it was devastating. i tried too hard, he didn’t try enough, and then wed reverse. he’d over reach, and i’d give up. we both refuse to believe this is something we can’t get through. we are a very strong couple, and after a week of talking, with each other and friends, we seem to have worked through the bulk of it. the main issue right now is i need time to see him. we both need time to physical reconnect our bond. hopefully all will go as planned next week and we will get that.

I know the details are sparse, as we are generally very private people, but I assure everyone that what occurred would usually break up a less solid couple, and probably even a few solid ones.  at the end of the day we both know that we are all the other wants in the world, that even with all the total bs that happened we still trust each other more than any other person in the world, that no one will treat me better than he will, and that I will never leave his side. this was not a bump. it was a hiccup and hopefully made us stronger and taught us something

Crowds of people paddle past through the stagnant waters in boats, and foul smells fill the air while the baking sun beats down. And yet, in this sprawling floating slum, where basic human needs are barely met, the people refuse to succumb to despair despite the hardships they face.

Source:
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-floating-slum-lagos

I guess this could be expanded to include actions as well as words. I have had my children doing the potty dance in public with their hands holding certain body parts and screaming they need to go to the bathroom.

I always enjoyed the awkward moments when standing in the check out lane or just walking around a store and out pops “that lady is really fat” or “look at that guys blue hair”. That person of course is standing two feet in front of you and is now giving you the stare glare. Of course as adults we understand the ramblings and innocence of small children, but what about the times this happens with the not so small children? I have turned every shade of red known to man out of embarrassment and then turned blue in the face as I held my breath to keep me from going off on my child right there. You often just do that apologetic eye contact with the insulted party and all is good because in that moment they know once in the car or at home that child is getting an ear full!

There are some good teaching moments in those later conversations with children about proper social skills and what is appropriate in public. Although we all see things we consider different or weird we learn to keep it to ourselves out of respect for others and we all had to learn those manners at some point too. It just seems that those teaching moments happen more often  in that humiliating public setting more than at home in a controlled environment!

Just to be fair to the children I have witnessed many elderly people who obviously are hard of hearing also not so quietly making comments. Their adult children or caregivers who are accompanying them look just a surprised and embarrassed as us younger parent’s.

What are your stories of the embarrassing comments or actions your child has made in public?

When I arrived at the Eugene O’Neill theater, in the still pouring rain, I found a  crowd of people in front of the theater that had spilled out onto 49 Street’s oncoming traffic.    Most everyone on the crowd was considerably younger than me; I began wondering what was I doing there.  I turned to leave and go home when I decided that I was not  going to have a little rain (a little?) and an unknown environment from the experience of becoming a bumblebee.  I turned out around and marched right into the crowd.  There was no line that I could see.  I came upon two very nice young women who were filling out entry blanks for the ticket raffle for ‘Book of the Mormon’.  In my warmest way I asked ‘what was the protocol to get an entry form?’.   Does that sound like I worked amidst researchers and clinicians for twenty years?   This nice, sweet young woman advised me to ‘plow into the crowd till you get to the guys who have the forms’.  We are only talking about a distance of five feet and close to a hundred people.  Meantime the rain continued.

All five feet of me did her best to ‘plow’ into the crowd, except I came upon a man about two feet to my right who had a bunch of blank entry forms.  In my warmest tone of voice I asked, ‘excuse me  sir but where did you get those forms’.  He handed the forms to me and told me to keep them.  Not wanting to be greedy, I let him know that I only needed one.  He explained this was how he got the forms and should use what I needed and pass the rest on.   I tried to pass the forms out but no one around me needed them.  I started to complete my own form intending to walk the blank forms through the crowd as soon as I finished.  A very nice lady, close to my age, asked me where I got those forms.  I repeated the previous scene, thus she became the next link in the chain of bumblebees.  I must confess that I don’t know where the term bumblebee comes from, except that is what the folks running the raffle called the crowd.   Anyway, I completed my form and now I had to make my way five feet through the crowd to someone or some place where I could hand in the form.  Success at last; I handed in the form with fifteen minutes to spare.   I alerted Michael to be ready to brave the MTA because I ‘knew’ I was going to win.

Fifteen minutes in the rain is a long time but Mormon is a classy show.  They had a group of production assistants passing out free umbrellas and rain ponchos.    Michael reminded me that they raised prices since their Tony; I still feel the umbrellas and  rain ponchos was a classy move in a rainy New York afternoon.  Eventually the raffle got under way; alas I didn’t win tickets.

Though I didn’t win I still felt I had just experienced a unique and warm ‘New York experience’.  There were a lot people, standing around in the annoying rain, yet everyone was helpful and friendly; some were down right warm.  There was a festive  atmosphere through the crowd despite the rain.  This feeling was enhanced by the folks from Book of Mormon who worked very hard to make an otherwise frustrating experience fun.

Book of the Mormon Raffle

12 flying hours later I was in Taipei. There, English was definitely a foreign language. Signs at the concession stand were a weird sort of comfort. I recognized the soft drink logo and it was still in English.

At least in Taipei it was a modern and developed environment like I’m used to. Everything was clean, signs were fresh and the airport sparkled.

On our approach to Cambodia’s capital city airport, the shanty villages engulfed the landscape. The rivers that served as highways for boats, fishermen, merchants and sewers dominated the earth below. The people of this city have great needs.

Once my driver picked me up, we headed out into the streets of the city. My Western mind is strained to take in all the ways that humanity exists. Instead of cars, there are thousands and thousands of motor scooters. Smallish bikes with 124cc to perhaps 175cc motors propelled their riders down the clogged streets.

While it may appear like mass hysteria on the roads, there is a system that everyone seems to follow. Honking is not so much an expression of anger or frustration as it is a notice to let someone else know that you are close by.

I gasped several times when scooters nearly scraped the car we were in or dodged a side view mirror or even crowded through an intersection even though their light had long since turned red.

But, it is high density housing that grips my heart every time I visit a developing country. Crowded buildings serve as homes to countless people. There isn’t just one of these structures but 100’s of 1,000’s.

Real humans live in them.  God knows each  one.  In the squalor of the big city where everyone is crowding others, people abuse people and dangers inflict hurt to protect worldly wealth, this is city living at its most challenging times.

Yet, out of one of these unimpressive buildings, steps a well-groomed young lady. She pushes her scooter on to the road way and she is off to work with the masses. Into her city I have come to visit and to teach pastors to shepherd God’s flock that is entrusted to them.

photo credit: brucefong photography