Measuring Sticks

When I was younger, I remember telling my mother or my grandmother how much I loved them. In order to quantify that love and show them just how much I loved them, I would spread out my hands beyond the normal range of any shoulder and say, “I love you this much.” You can imagine that there was a little bit of grunting as I tried to spread my arms further and further apart. I was trying to measure my love.

Often times throughout my children’s lives, they will come up to me with a tape measure and ask, ‘How big am I daddy?” I don’t think it is the number that counts, just the measurement of length that is expressed by putting the end of the tap on the floor and stretching it to the top of their head. Seeing is believing for them when you simply say, “this many,” as you point to the spot on the tape. Children are fascinated by measurement.

Of course, there is always the proverbial “are we there yet?” or “when will we be there?” that begins at the very second you leave the driveway.

I could annoy you all – at least those of you who may know this song – by singing a song from the Broadway production Rent, “Seasons of Love.” It’s a great song that talks about measuring a day, a month, a year. 525,600 is the number of minutes in a year, but the question that is asked in the song is “how do you measure a year in a life.” If I could, I would add audio here, but believe me you would not stop singing it. I think I’ve ruined my night already.

But I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue of measurement a lot recently. I’ve talked about it in conversations in meetings with colleagues and even within the church. What is it that we are doing, and how is that measured in the church? Are we making an impact? Is what we are doing, what we should be doing? Sometimes we use the vision that is expressed as a way of measuring what we are doing. But I’ve been thinking about it even more – pressing the point. How do you measure what you have envisioned?

James Moore tells a story about measurement and our Sunday School Class read it this past weekend. In the story he is talking about a measuring stick.

Some years ago, there was a great professor at Centenary College named Dean Smith. Dean Smith was a saintly man, a brilliant scholar, an outstanding communicator, and a real friend to the students. In one of his famous lectures, Dean Smith talked to the students about how we discover truth and how we determine what is true and false.

After some discussion, Dean Smith suddenly asked the students this question: “how wide is my desk?” The students looked at the large desk and then made their best guesses. A variety of answers range out, “72 inches,” “looks like 75 to me,” “No, 68 inches.” Then Dean Smith said, “These are all pretty good guesses, but how do we figure out which one is most nearly true and accurate?” There was silence in the classroom for a moment, and then tentatively someone said, “Get a measuring stick?” “That’s right,” Dean Smith would say, “To determine which answer is closest to the truth, we have to get a measuring stick and measure.”

Then Dean Smith went to the blackboard. He took a piece of chalk, and in silence, he drew the outline of a cross. With that piece of chalk, he traced over and over the sign of the cross, letting it dramatically sink into the hearts and minds of the students. Then, he stood back and pointed to the cross and said, “Ladies and gentleman, there’s your measuring stick! There’s your measuring stick for truth!” (Moore, Rich in Things that Count the Most, pp 83-84.)

Regardless of whether it is a compass, a clock, a measuring tape or even a young child’s arms, there has to be something that can measure our actions, our truth, our love, our motives, and our lives. That measuring stick in my impression has to be Christ. Moreover, that measuring stick has to be used daily or we will veer off course, be steered in the wrong direction, shoot too far or even underestimate what we are doing. There has to be something by which we measure our life.

The Apostle Paul writes quite simply in his first letter of Corinthians, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him Crucified.” It was his measuring stick for ministry, preaching, teaching and loving. It was his measuring stick for everything that he did. I hope it can be yours too.

This week in worship, we will begin to prepare ourselves for Lent with Transfiguration Sunday. This is the Sunday immediately preceding the start of Lent. Remember that Ash Wednesday services are next week, we begin our Men’s Breakfasts, and on Sunday February 10th our Theology in Film Series begins. But until then, I look forward to seeing you soon.

Please pray for me, and know that I am praying for you.
Greg

The Face of Christ

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.”
1 Corinthians 12:12-14

Recently, College Hill Church completed a major undertaking: a church pictorial. For those who have ever been involved in the process, you will know that it is no small undertaking. It takes many people to complete the task of arranging all of the details necessary to get everyone in the church photographed, and then making arrangements for publishing.

This year as part of our 100th Anniversary Celebration, our directory was quite involved. The company that photographed the congregation and published our book provided us with many opportunities to make it a great directory. In addition to the directory, we were able to get welcome brochures published as well as a Portrait Mosaic.

Over the past few weeks, we have received the directories and began to hand them out. In a separate shipment, we then received the welcome brochures and the Mosaic. To be honest, it was the Mosaic in which I was most interested.

The Portrait Mosaic is literally what it sounds like. It is a mosaic using all of the pictures from the directory. In our case, we chose a Mosaic of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd. It reminds me of a stained glass window that I have seen from time to time.

If you have ever looked at a mosaic, you know that when you stand close to the artwork, you may not see anything except the material that was used. Sometimes it may be small rocks, or clay pieces. Sometimes children will make mosaics out of beans of different colors. In order to see the true work, you need to stand away from the art. When you do this – you see!

When I first opened our Mosaic, what I saw were the faces of the congregation. Each portrait that is in the directory is part of the Mosaic. I had forgotten which image we had chosen, so initially, I was unable to see the real image. I had to step back, and when I did, I finally saw it. It was the face of Christ.

As I stood there, I had an overwhelming feeling come over me. It was quite amazing for me to see all of those faces from the church making up the face of Christ. I said to myself as I stood there, “We are the face of Christ.”

Sure, we may understand that from an immediate standpoint. We often say that we are the church, we represent Christ, and we do his work. We even go to great lengths to understand ourselves at the Body of Christ. We read from Paul’s words in First Corinthians that we are baptized into that Body, but have we ever seen it in a portrait?

This mosaic is really making an impact with me this week. It is really causing me to think about our ministry and what it is that we do as a church. I hope that the image is not just an image though, but something much deeper and more meaningful. “We are the face of Christ” tells me that we have a job to do – and there are needs that must be met. We may just be the only face of Christ that people see!

Have you ever thought about that? More importantly, what are we doing about that?

St. Theresa of Avila wrote “Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.”

You are the face of Christ! That is a powerful statement, but even a more impressive image. Yet, I hope that it is more than just an image of what people see, but what they will experience from you this week. That will be my prayer.

“You have made us in your image, O God. And we simply pray that you would use us. We are your hands and your eyes. We are your feet, we are your body. Help us to reach out to those who are in need this day. We pray these things humbly, O Christ. Amen.”

This week in worship we will be continuing our series on Transformed Living. Our sermon will focus on prayer and drawing water. I look forward to seeing you all this week.

Please pray for me, and know that I am praying for you.
Greg