Wake Up.

Here are the thoughts and ideas shared at this past week's KAMP's Gathering.
We continue our journey of The Art of Living.

See Mark 14 1-9.
3-5Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves. "That's criminal! A sheer waste! This perfume could have been sold for well over a year's wages and handed out to the poor." They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.
6-9But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me. She did what she could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial.

She did what she could when she could…
People sitting around are mad, upset, they are criticizing…talking about perfume and money
Jesus says they missed it…what she has done is beautiful…preparing for burial…act of worship to god…holy sacred act
Teaching us to see a whole other world, other story, greater depths…
they see jars, perfume, etc…
Jesus see something holy profound…
Jesus is aware of the sacred and the holy…in the midst of the mundane

See Genesis 28:10-22.
“10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway [c] resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."

Jacob is on the move…not aware…odd dream…calling…work…God was here the whole time…wakes up to a god that has been present all along…not god just showed up…wakes up from his sleep and his spiritual sleep…finding the god who has been there all along…becomes aware of a god who has been there…and I’ve missed it…

Come into the awareness that god has a call a work for you to do…what do you want nothing more than…purpose…what you’re made for…what needs to happen to accomplish that…divine urging…and we are waking up to it…and then God showed up…no you did…and then we became aware…

See Exodus 3:1-12. "1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."
5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, [a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
12 And God said, "I will be with you."

Ends up in midian standing at a bush that’s burning…the bush happened 40 years after he arrived in midian…God speaks to him…how long has he been walking through this section of land…was god speaking the whole time…or did he hear when he stopped…is the ground you walk on holy or has god been present the whole time…waking up to holiness and deepness….we wake up…

As a follower of Jesus, a person of the way, mastering the art of living… Developing radar for the sacred and the holy…not that god shows up…we show up

See John 5:1-18.
The Authority of the Son
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working." 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

At this point they believed the prophets quit speaking…Romans are in control…no freedom to worship…that maybe god has stopped working…my father is always at work…we believe this..school, work, buying things, interacting…god is doing something here, right here where you are…every relationship, person, time, mess, those rejecting god, interactions with people you cannot stand, pursuing, loving them, what if we internalized that god is always at work…Jesus sees a depth to the experience that others are missing…Jesus is fully awake

Mastering the art of living is becoming fully awake…shaking off the slumber…cutting through the fog…

God is speaking, at work, convicting, showing us, prodding, pushing, tapping on shoulder, telling us your loved, that we are ok, your not alone, always at work with you doing something, calling, reminding you, speaking into you values

John Robinson, “Honest to God” – “For Christianity, the holy is the depth of the common, just as secular is not a (godless) section of life but the world (God’s world, for which Christ died) cut off and alienated from its true depth. The purpose of worship (church) is not to retire (escape) from the secular into the department of the religious, let alone to escape from this world into the other world, but to open oneself to the meeting of the Christ in the common. The function of worship is to make us more sensitive to these depths; to focus, sharpen and deepen our response to the world and to other people. The test of worship is how far it makes us more sensitive to the beyond in our midst, to the Christ in the hungry, the naked, the homeless and the prisoner."

the purpose of worship is not to escape, but to opens oneself up to the Christ in the common

The point of church is not to meet god, but that we learn to see and find god everywhere in life…being woken up to the Christ who is present everywhere

The function of worship is to make us more sensitive to these depths…
This opens us up and wakens us up…

See Genesis 28 Again.
Certain Place – in between nowhere and nowhere…not a temple, tabernacle, church, Christian bookstore, event sponsored by a church, wilderness, rocks and stones, god has been here, anyplace, a certain cubicle, hall, dorm, driveway, neighborhood, home, road, store, relationship, phone call, email, certain place…

We feel like we’re missing it…that its over there…it’s easy believe that if I went there…challenge who you are and what’s going on here…lameness follows you from town to town…wherever you are there you are…learn to be here…hear god here…wake up…

What happens when you master the art of living…taking steps…now…the revolution is alive and well within you…love has to spill over…the revolution is alive and well wherever you are…my god is always at work…we want to make sure that we don’t look for it over there…but that the revolution is here…in you…around you…take off your shoes…stop listen…here…the kingdom of god is among you, in you

God is alive all over the place…enter in and the kingdom will be alive here, now…waking up to a god that has been here all along and we were sleeping

God is near…god is always at work…not somewhere else or just there…here near…you and me right now near…speaking, convicting, wake up I have things for you to do…too much noise…listen to me and you’d understand…Jesus on palm Sunday…if you only knew what was happening today in your midst…waking up to the sacred

Luke 19:41 When the city came into view, he wept over it. "If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you!"

Closing Prayer.

Ephesians 1 says, “15-19That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn't stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!

Pray that the eyes of your heart may me enlightened…here all along, just not aware…show us how loaded place and people are…give us radar to see what me miss…eyes to see what’s around us…