Crossroads Celebration Church

Lots of churches bring in the average household in their neighborhood. What if the person who had the really nice job of executive at the big corporation needed Jesus and the homeless person also needed Jesus? What if there were a church that the average household and the executive and the homeless came together to worship together and serve together and find God together? What if there were a church that allowed anybody and everybody to worship together? That’s the desire of Crossroads! Isn’t that what Jesus did? Didn’t he say he didn’t come for the healthy, but for the sick? We are all in need of a Savior, why not come and meet some others who are searching, going through the crossroads of life looking for God.

When mom died earlier this year, my extended family told some great stories. Here’s one that I knew very little about. My mom’s parents raised seven children and were very poor. They moved into a little bungalow in Spencer, Iowa. Next door was a little bigger house and a little fancier with a white picket fence. All I ever knew was that one should never allow a ball to go over that white fence. With seven children there were a lot of grandchildren and we couldn’t all fit into the bungalow on summer days so we were in the back yard playing some kind of ball. Well of course the ball would occasionally go over and with fear and trepidation someone would quickly go and retrieve it. I knew only of that white fence and the rule of the ball and that fence. All other neighboring fences were ok.

Now as an adult the rest of the story unfolded. My grandfather and the man of the house with the white picket fence didn’t get along. The neighbor seemed to like to call the police on my uncle Bob. The youngest and maybe the most precocious. So one night, grandpa and grandma heard noises outside. The neighbor with the fence was digging up gravel (stealing) from my grandparents driveway. Grandpa wanted to call the police for all the times the neighbor called about my uncle. Well grandma said, “What would Jesus do” or something to that affect. The police weren’t called.

Making the story shorted, both men died. Grandma asked her two daughters about mending fences and inviting the widow neighbor lady over for coffee or lunch. My mom and my aunt suggested that would be a great idea. Grandma made the first step and invited the neighbor lady over. Then grandma got invited over and well they became friends. At my grandmothers funeral, the neighbor lady came and stood at her casket for the longest time, saying nothing and then finally she said, “Jennie, you taught be how to love. I’ll miss you.”

Despite keeping balls out of the neighbors yards and gravel stealing in the middle of the night, God breaks through and shows two people how to be true neighbors and how to love. Jesus was once asked, “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, about enemies setting aside their differences and making sacrifices.

Don’t let fences keep you from doing God’s work of loving and caring for people. Reach out or over if that’s the case and offer a blessing to that person who may not like your balls flying into their yard. Overlook the petty offenses and live as Jesus taught and as he set the example for us. Be a good neighbor.

This noon I was eating lunch with my wife and daughter and watching the school children play with a ball close to our garden. There is a ten foot chain link fence between us and the school property. About ten nine year old boys were playing a game and the rubber ball got kicked over the fence into our yard. I put down my sandwich and walked outdoors to the fence and picked up the ball and threw it over. I’m guessing I got about eight “thank you”s from the boys. It reminds me of the ten lepers in Luke 17 that Jesus healed and only one came back and said those two simple words, “thank you”.

The school and/or the boys parents have done a good job of teaching some manners and reminding them to say, “thanks”. The ball was such a simple thing to give back, and yet Jesus gave ten men their lives back and only one could muster up a kind, “thank you”. Hopefully this is a lesson for all of us. Simple or life fulfilling things, don’t forget those two words. Try it today and everyday.

I love it when a familiar scripture comes at you with a brand new insight. That’s what happened this week reading about the transfiguration. Luke 9: 28-36 is when Jesus takes three disciples up on the mountain and there they meet Moses and Elijah. I was reading out of the Message translation and it said, “At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem.”

I’ve preached sermons about the disciples wanting to build tents for the three. I’ve studied how Jesus was all glowing (transfigured). But this is what was new for me this time I read it. This was like the coach in the locker room at half time. Here’s the game so far and here’s how we can best finish the game and win. Jesus had two of the best coaches of the Old Testament show up in the locker room and suggest to Jesus how this “exodus” of Jesus would be best played out. How to finish and finish well. We all know the victory of Jesus over sin and death, over the cross and the tomb. And we know that there were some critical moments for Jesus [turning over the money changers tables in the temple and praying in the garden that this cup may pass]. It’s nice to know that when the disciples abandoned him, that the coaches Moses and Elijah had done their part to help plan Jesus’ “exodus”.

Do you suppose that when Jesus was being betrayed and denied and tried before Pontius Pilate and being nailed to the cross, that the game plan was in Jesus mind and heart and spirit? Did he hear again the wisdom and the encouragement from Moses and Elijah? I do believe that the cloud of witnesses from the Old Testament were holding up Jesus’ in those tense moments of his “exodus”. Just like the final moments of the game when the fans and the players and the trainers and coaches are anxious to see how the final second will bring an outcome. I have new eyes on the transfiguration, like a half time session preparing the key players for the final victory. Go, Jesus, Go!