Yesterday I wrote about the importance of a Kingdom focus and quoted Pastor Brad Edwards of Lafayette, Colorado:

If secularism is the pursuit of the Kingdom without the King, Evangelicalism has come to worship the King without the Kingdom. –Brad Edwards, September 8, 2020

Later on in the article, he paints a provocative picture of a fruitless pear tree:

In an interview on the podcast I co-host, Everything Just Changed, Brandon Washington, the founding pastor of The Embassy Church in Denver, CO, tells of how his HOA recently hired a tree trimming service for their neighborhood, but they refused to prune one particular tree in his front yard because it was a pear tree and fruit trees weren’t included in their fees. Confused, Brandon explained to the arborist that this tree hasn’t borne any fruit in the 7 years he’d lived there, at all. Not a single pear...

Some fruit trees (e.g. pear) are both pleasing to the eye and easy to maintain, and would be ideal decorative species if not for the messy and inconvenient fruit that regularly falls to the ground, clutters neat suburban lawns and, if neglected, will rot where they lay. Thus, “domesticated” fruit trees had the fruit-bearing genes bred out of their DNA so they could be visually pleasing and conveniently maintained with little effort. Domesticated suburbanites wanted a fruit tree (King) without the fruit (Kingdom), and literally remade it in their own image. –Brad Edwards, September 8, 2020

I never heard of such a thing so I looked it up. Sure enough, although the terms are different, the concept is the same: there are ornamental pear trees that don’t bear fruit.

If you aren’t a fan of fruit or dislike the mess it can create, there are many showy non-fruiting tree specimens to choose from for your landscape. Amongst these, there are several cultivars of ornamental pear trees. – Amy Grant, Gardening Know-How: Learn about Ornamental Vs. Fruiting Pear Trees.

Nice to look at, but no fruit. Jesus was not a fan of fruit trees without fruit:

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” (Mark 11.12 – 14, ESV)

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15.16, ESV)

We’ve been talking about the importance of a Kingdom focus, and I think it’s safe to say that a Kingdom focus and a God-focus ought to be the same thing although according to Pastor Brad Edwards of Lafayette, Colorado, it’s not always:

If secularism is the pursuit of the Kingdom without the King, Evangelicalism has come to worship the King without the Kingdom. –Brad Edwards, September 8, 2020

That’s an intriguing quote, but it’s certainly true from my experience growing up in a tradition that worshipped Jesus, to be sure, but relegated his teachings to “another age” – maybe a future millennium. I’m learning that it’s not a “future Kingdom” but a present one. Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4.17)

And if we are subjects of a King, then best we be about doing what he wants us to do and becoming what he wants us to become. The late Dr. Howard Hendrix said:

The Bible was written not to satisfy your curiosity but to help you conform to Christ’s image. Not to make you a smarter sinner but to make you like the Savior. Not to fill your head with a collection of biblical facts but to transform your life. – Howard G. Hendricks

So as we read the Bible this year, let’s be open to how God wants to change us and let’s be available for advancing his Kingdom where we are. May we be peacemakers in these volatile times.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Matthew 5.9, ESV)

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life… (Philippians 2.14 – 16, ESV)

I’ve been reading about Joseph (Genesis 37, 39 – 50), and one thing that jumps out is his God-focus. When ordered by his master’s wife to take her to bed, he responds:

And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39.7 – 9, ESV, emphasis mine)

When two of his fellow-prisoners had dreams needing interpreting, he told them:

Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me. (Genesis 40.8, ESV)

When Pharaoh wanted a dream interpreted, Joseph told him the same thing:

It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. (Genesis 41.16, ESV)

Joseph’s God-focus drove his behavior, just as Job’s did. For example,

¹  “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?
²  What would be my portion from God above and my heritage from the Almighty on high?
³  Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and disaster for the workers of iniquity?
⁴  Does not he see my ways and number all my steps? (Job 31.1 – 4, ESV)

What’s interesting is that neither Joseph nor Job had the written word at that time. They would have had to rely on an oral tradition that may have included not much more than:

• God created the heavens and the earth (we can look it up in Genesis 1 and 2)
• Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of the serpent and sinned with consequences (Genesis 3)
• God destroyed the world because of sin, saving only Noah (Genesis 6 – 8)
• God scattered the people because of their pride (Genesis 11)
• God chose Abraham and his family to make a difference (Genesis 12 and following)

Even as I listed these stories, one unmistakable theme is that sin has consequences. Joseph knew this, and it drove his behavior. I may write more tomorrow about how for some of us that’s not true. We know a lot, but it sometimes doesn’t alter our behavior.

For now, let’s remember that for Joseph it did make a difference. A God-focus (we could say Kingdom focus) did guide his behavior.

Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression. (Psalm 19.12, 13, NKJV)

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards. (Matthew 7.24 – 27, MSG)

As this comes out, the Presidential Inauguration was yesterday. Depending on your point of view, it’s a time of hope for a new and positive beginning or despair. OR, it’s time to renew our focus as believers. Jesus’ message was a simple one:

From that time on Jesus began to proclaim his message with these words: “Keep turning away from your sins and come back to God, for heaven’s kingdom realm is now accessible.” (Matthew 4.17, TPT)

Jesus lived during a time of great oppression. There were no elections. There was no recourse for a Jew to oppose Rome. The answer? Turn from your sins and focus on God’s’ Kingdom.

This might be a word for today. Two weeks ago there was an assault on the capitol by Trump supporters. What kingdom are you supporting? If you’re a believer, are you really putting your hope in all the conspiracy stories going around? Or are you putting your hope in the new administration?

Again, our hope should be in neither. I wrote last week about Mike Metzger’s call for a Third Way – a conservative/liberal approach. I also shared Tony Dungy’s call for five practices that should characterize us in 2021, beginning with reading the Bible through.

Our pastor shared Sunday that in the middle of a very oppressive regime, Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians was that they experience the love of God. (See Ephesians 3.14 – 21. Better yet, pray it!) Our pastor included this challenge:

If we are not living out of our experience of God’s love, if we are not leading the way in bringing peace, if we are not safe to be around because we’re going to be haranguing from one political position or the other, the New Testament would describe us as immature. – Dr. David Jordan-Irwin, Monument Community Presbyterian Church, January 17, 2021.

My prayer for us all in 2021 is that we experience God’s love, share it with others, and focus on the Kingdom of God.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6.33, ESV)

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7.14, ESV)

On Monday, Martin Luther King Day, I reminded us of Dr. King’s perspective on work with a quote from his famous “Streetsweeper” sermon. It’s worth a read and a listen if you missed it.

Today I want to share a couple of quotes I found in the process of getting my office put back together with the new furniture. Both have to do with work; both have to do with baseball. The first sounds like it came from George Will’s book, Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, which I’ve read, and if you like baseball, it’s a good read. Here’s the quote I just found:

I loved the game. I loved the competition. But I never had any fun. I never enjoyed it. All hard work. All the time. – Carl Yastrzemski, Red Sox outfielder (born, 1939)

Here’s the other quote. It’s hard to believe they’re talking about the same profession:

I ain’t never had a job. I just always played baseball. – Leroy “Satchel” Paige, pitcher, Negro leagues, and the Major Leagues (1906 – 1982). The bio says he played his last professional game (in the minor leagues) in 1966 – do the math, he would have been 60 years old!

It sounds like Satchel Paige found the enjoyment in work that “The Preacher” talked about:

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5.18, 19, ESV)

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3.17, ESV)

As I’m reading through the Bible this year (join me!), I’m in that familiar part of Genesis – you know when we start reading the Bible, we at least get through Genesis before we quit! So I’ve read all of Genesis many times. I asked the Lord in advance to show me something I hadn’t seen before. Something I need to act on. (A good prayer for any day.) And here’s what I saw, relating to some current events I’ve been writing about:

And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.” (Genesis 32.6 – 8, ESV)

The messengers brought back a simple observation: Esau is coming to meet you with 400 men. Jacob ASSUMED that these were men of war and that Esau was attacking him. His response was to be “greatly afraid and distressed,” and he implements a complex plan to protect his family, his assets and appease Esau.

But Esau apparently has no ill will toward Jacob. The fear was for nothing. (You can read the whole account in Genesis 32 and 33.)

What are we afraid of? Were the events of January 6 and any (hopefully, unsuccessful) plans for this week motivated by fear? I pray that we have nothing to be afraid of. And if we are afraid, maybe we should commit our fears to God as Jacob did:

Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him… (Genesis 32.11, ESV)

Don’t be like this people,
always afraid somebody is plotting against them. 
Don’t fear what they fear. 
Don’t take on their worries.
If you’re going to worry, 
worry about The Holy. Fear GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies. (Isaiah 8.12, 13, MSG)

It’s Martin Luther King Day, and it’s a good time to reflect on what he said about work:

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted pictures, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.” – Martin Luther King, Jr., New Covenant Baptist Church, Chicago, IL, April 9, 1967. (You can hear it here – just the first 30 seconds)

I’ve been reading about Joseph in Genesis chapters 39 and 40: in whatever place he found himself, even a slave and a prisoner, he did his work well. It’s worth thinking about.

The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. (Genesis 39.2 – 5, NIV)

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3.23, 24, NIV)

Can we take a break from the doom and gloom for a feel-good story?

I got June a standing desk for Christmas (actually, it’s motorized and goes up and down), and it inspired me. I’ve had the same large corner desk unit in my downstairs office since we moved in 2006. It has served well, but I suddenly visualized myself working while standing and looking out the window. Question: how to get rid of the existing desks so I would have room for my own standing desk? Answer: post it on NextDoor.com!

NextDoor is the web site that allows you to join by physical neighborhood, and in addition to the other benefits it has (like finding lost pets!), it’s great for getting rid of household items. Sometimes I just put stuff out by the street, post a picture of it on NextDoor, and it’s gone within minutes.

In this case, even though I put a low price on the desk set, I didn’t get any interest for a few days. So, I prayed about it! (Always a last resort…) I prayed that there would be someone out there who needed that desk and would enjoy it. And within minutes, someone established contact. To make a long story short, they loved the desk even though they had to take it apart and reassemble at home. She sent me pictures.

She wrote,

I can’t thank you enough! It’s beautiful. Thank you. So happy my mom van worked for transport. Take care. Happy mom over here. And the current small desk one of the boys is using we are posting for free. Paying it forward.

And in the process, another lady wrote to ask about the carpet protector (for a rolling office desk chair) in one of my pictures. I said it wasn’t for sale since I was getting a new desk. But then I decided I didn’t need it after all. This lady was a school teacher, and they had cleared all the furniture out of their school after a COVID outbreak. She came over and picked up the office chair and carpet protector. She said she was “over the moon” excited.

Sometimes there are easy ways to bless people that are win-win. I needed to get rid of some stuff. There were people who needed that stuff.

Don’t hoard treasure… (Matthew 6.19, MSG)

Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.” (Luke 6.38, MSG)

My friend Ray Bandi, former pastor and disciple-making coach in New Hampshire, reminded me of the best short version of the challenges we’re facing in the U.S. It’s right out of the Bible:

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. (James 1.19, 20, NIV)

It’s very simple: from politicians right down to the average FaceBook user, we’re not very good at “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” We talk too much, listen too little, and get angry too quickly. And the kicker is, the anger will not bring about the righteousness that God (and most people) desire.

There’s no need for me to say anymore.

One benefit of reading and rereading the Bible is that every time we come, even to a familiar text, we are in a different time and place. Like now, for example. As I write, authorities across the country are preparing for widespread, perhaps violent, protests, over the next week from disgruntled Republicans. If people are willing to storm the Capitol building while Congress is in session, what else might they do? I know people who were at the January 6 rally although they broke off from the march to the Capitol as soon as the police showed up. I get emails from friends, fellow believers, forwarding all kinds of “calls to action.” With that sort of thing in mind, a few days ago I was reading Matthew 5, Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount. Do they apply?

³⁸ “Your ancestors have also been taught, ‘Take an eye in exchange for an eye and a tooth in exchange for a tooth.’ ³⁹ However, I say to you, don’t repay an evil act with another evil act. But whoever insults you by slapping you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well… ⁴¹ And should people in authority take advantage of you, do more than what they demand. ⁴² Learn to generously share what you have with those who ask for help, and don’t close your heart to the one who comes to borrow from you.”

⁴³ “Your ancestors have also been taught ‘Love your neighbors and hate the one who hates you.’ ⁴⁴ However, I say to you, love your enemy, bless the one who curses you, do something wonderful for the one who hates you, and respond to the very ones who persecute you by praying for them. ⁴⁵ For that will reveal your identity as children of your heavenly Father. He is kind to all by bringing the sunrise to warm and rainfall to refresh whether a person does what is good or evil. ⁴⁶ What reward do you deserve if you only love the loveable? Don’t even the tax collectors do that? ⁴⁷ How are you any different from others if you limit your kindness only to your friends? Don’t even the ungodly do that? ⁴⁸ Since you are children of a perfect Father in heaven, you are to be perfect like him.” (Matthew 5.38 – 48, ESV)

And does this apply?

Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary… (Isaiah 8.11 – 14, ESV)