When I was in high school, I competed in men’s gymnastics. One of the men’s events is the high bar. As you might know from watching gymnastics during the Summer Olympics, release moves are a common part of a men’s high bar routine. I had a release move in my high bar routine, where I would swing forward around the bar, in an underhand grip, but then release the bar – on an upward swing, and then fling myself above the bar, while making a half-turn, and then catch the bar, as I fell back toward the bar. To release the bar, and catch it again, this skill required aiming, or directing my head and body upward – to stay above and near the bar – to catch it and hang on. If I aimed my head forward, I would miss the bar. No matter anything else I’d do, if I aimed my head away from the bar, I’d miss it, and fall to the mat below.
The mark of success for that skill is “catching the bar.” To hit the mark, I had to aim in the right direction. I had to aim at the target. I could easily evaluate if I was successful at the skill. I either hit the mark, or I didn’t. Evaluation of success was clear: I either caught the bar, or I didn’t.
What marks are you aiming for? In our context, we’re tempted to aim at several marks that we’re told are indicative of success – that are indicative of entering into an abundant life. Aiming at a certain income level. Aiming at a house in the nice neighborhood. Aiming at “following your heart.” Aiming at the biggest sale. Aiming at a career achievement. Aiming at recognition. Aiming at the championship. Aiming at the most muscle. Aiming at a body type. Aiming at attention. Aiming at trending style. Aiming at the most followers of subscribers. Aiming at new or thrilling experiences. Aiming at the biggest crowd. Aiming at the most influence. Aiming at happy children or grandchildren. Aiming at the happiest and longest marriage. Aiming at the longest life.
We’re tempted to aim for these marks, believing they indicate a successful life – believing they indicate an abundant life. Yet, we feel the tension these aims create in our lives. We feel the anxiety they foster. We feel the shame they foster. We feel the insignificance they foster. But, when they’re what we’re constantly presented as the marks to aim for, we feel the vortex pulling the aim of our lives in their direction.
Even as the body of Christ, we are tempted to aim for these kinds of marks, believing that: more butts in the seats. More bucks in the bank account. And more building accouterments to offer – are indicative of a successful church – are indicative of all people being guided to abundant life in Jesus.
Personally, and as a church body, we have to ask ourselves: What marks are we aiming for? What marks are we aiming for? The reality is we’re all going to be pulled to aim at something. The other question is, What will determine what specific marks we aim for?
As we’ve been exploring the language of CCC’s refreshed vision over the past few messages, the vision revolves around Jesus: Jesus is the abundant life we’re on a mission to guide all people toward. Jesus is the heartbeat of the values we have of disruptive truth, simple faithfulness, and uncommon presence. Jesus is who is encountered when we participate in our strategy of: meeting consistently with Jesus, sharing vulnerably from a life with Jesus, and investing sacrificially for the mission of Jesus. The mission, values, and strategy of our vision revolve around Jesus.
To know if we’re living into this vision – to know how we’re doing at our mission of guiding all people to abundant life in Jesus, we have to allow Jesus to direct what we’re aiming for. Based on the life of Jesus and the early church who set the precedent for us of following Jesus we see at least three marks emerge that we believe we’re called to aim for in our current context. We believe we’re called to aim for: Consistently meeting with Jesus daily. Having the names of people whom you share vulnerably with each week. And, sacrificially investing your time, talent, and treasure to help someone enter God’s kingdom each year.
To make this easier to engage, we rephrased these marks into questions to help us use them as an evaluation tool to see if we’re aiming and hitting these marks. When did I meet with Jesus today? Who am I vulnerably sharing with this week? What am I doing to help someone enter God’s Kingdom this year? When we ask ourselves these questions (personally or as a church body), we can concretely look for evidence of where we’re aiming for these marks.
Evaluation of success toward our mission and vision is clearer when evaluated through these marks, we are consistently meeting with Jesus daily, or we’re not. We have the names of people whom we’re vulnerably sharing with, and who is vulnerably sharing with us or we don’t. We are sacrificially investing our time, talent, and treasure toward helping someone to enter God’s kingdom, or we’re not.
The benefit of these marks is that they help us evaluate success at living in God’s abundant life beyond the marks that the world calls us to aim for and they help us evaluate success in our mission of guiding all people to abundant life in Jesus beyond just the quantitative marks of more butts, bucks, and buildings that we’re tempted to aim for as a church body. The benefit of these marks is that they help us evaluate success at living into God’s abundant life personally and success at guiding all people to God’s abundant life as a church according to qualitative standards of Jesus.
We’re tempted to believe that aiming for the marks of the world, or the quantitative marks of the butts, bucks, and buildings will help us reach where we want to go and who we want to be.
But if we’re always aiming at those marks, we’re always going to miss the marks we’re not aiming for – the qualitative and more holistic marks that Jesus models and calls us toward.
As Michael Scott of The Office quotes from Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.” If we never aim for the habits of Jesus, we’ll never be able to evaluate our life by them. Or as Zig Ziglar has famously said, “If you aim at nothing you will hit it every time.”
If you never aim for the habits of Jesus, you’ll never live into them. What marks are you aiming for?
Good news that we encounter from God’s word today is that the three qualitative marks we want to aim for as a church body and personally – to live into the abundant life of God and to guide all people to abundant life in Jesus – these three marks are modeled in the life of Jesus, and copied and lived out by his followers – his disciples – those who found abundant life in Jesus.
One specific place where we see these three marks lived out is in John 2-3. In John 2-3, we can evaluate the aim of Jesus’ life to live in God’s abundant life and his success in guiding all people to abundant life in God by how he has a method of meeting consistently with his Heavenly Father (God). By how he has the name of a specific person, Nicodemus, whom he shares vulnerably with from his life with God. And by how he sacrificially invests his time, talent, and treasure toward helping a specific person, Nicodemus, to enter God’s kingdom.
We can look at Jesus’ life, and find Jesus aiming for and hitting these marks. As Jesus aims for these marks, he is living in the abundant life of God and accomplishing the mission of guiding all people to his abundant life.
In John 2-3, and 7, We encounter that Nicodemus copies Jesus’ example, and aims for these marks as well. What marks are you aiming for? When will you meet with Jesus today, tomorrow, and the next day? Who are you vulnerably sharing with this week? What are you doing to help someone enter God’s Kingdom this year?
Our kids are homeschooled, and part of homeschooling in New York State is that we have to track what our kids learn so that we can send a report to the school district four times a year. While we have some regimented schoolwork that our kids go through, there are a number of non-book learning experiences that happen throughout the week, that have to be tracked: geographical awareness, physical education, health, fire safety, and traffic safety, just to mention some of them. To keep track of these learning experiences, I had to create an alarm on my phone to help me remember to make notes from each day, to keep track of them. I knew that if I didn’t make an alarm. If I didn’t start a daily habit. If I didn’t start the pattern or rhythm of recording the information, I never would. I would have great intention of aiming for it, but actually end up aiming for other things with my time and effort. We see a similar dynamic in the life of Jesus in John 2.
In John 2:13ff, we encounter Jesus in Jerusalem, for the annual Passover festival, and in the Jewish temple court to celebrate and worship. But as Jesus enters the temple, he encounters people selling animals and exchanging money. To this, Jesus responds by driving the animals out of the courtyard and overturning the tables.
While we’re not going to spend time going through the nuances of what all Jesus’ actions mean. I want to highlight that Jesus’ action is marking a distinction. A distinction between the temple as a place of: worship, prayer, sacrifice, and focus on God’s presence and revelation, and what the people had allowed it to become. A place of commerce. We can see the heart of this distinction by Jesus words in John 2:16: “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” Jesus recognized that the aim of his time – the aim of his consistent visit to the temple – was to be WITH his Heavenly Father (to be in the presence of God). The contrast of the situation is that the people had the intention of aiming for that, but their actual aim hit something else altogether. And what they were being successful at was not truthful worship, but deceptive worship – missing God’s presence amid the commerce.
The prophet Micah makes a similar accusation, With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly[a] with your God. (Micah 6:6-8) God’s abundant life was not in the amount of sacrifices but in the quality of their sacrifices. Sacrificing from a humble heart before the Lord. Sacrificing from an awareness of needing the presence of God in one’s life.
The gospel account of John, even captures that Jesus’ disciples recognized the importance that Jesus placed on spending undiluted time in God’s presence, “His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me” (John 2:17). Which is a reference to Jesus living out David’s cry in Psalm 69:9. Jesus was known for aiming at being in God’s undiluted presence. Jesus was known by the mark of meeting in God’s presence. We also see this in Jesus’ life by the number of times he removes himself from the hustle and bustle of life to spend time in prayer with his Heavenly Father, and dwell on his promises – to dwell on his word of abundant life. What mark are you aiming for?
Several years ago, we had an issue with our taxes, where we owed a lot of money that we didn’t have. That is not a situation anyone wants to admit to anyone. No one wants to be known as someone who can’t cover their debts. We could have tried to deal with the issue all on our own. That is the American way after all. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and figure it out. Make it happen, figure it out, on our own; or, I could vulnerably share my need with someone so that we weren’t alone in the situation. But that had to be people I could trust. People I knew wouldn’t judge my situation. People I knew would be the voice and heart of Jesus in a crummy time. Someone who would encourage me to lean into God’s care for me, no matter how the situation unfolded or was dealt with.
In John 3, we encounter that Jesus has a similar encounter with a Jewish religious leader, named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was curious about Jesus, and who he was. Most of Nicodemus’ counterparts in the religious leader community did not believe Jesus was God. But Nicodemus couldn’t help but wonder if Jesus was from God.
What we encounter throughout John 3 is a couple of overlapping dynamics: 1) We encounter that Jesus is willing to spend time with Nicodemus, listen to his vulnerable questions, and reply vulnerably back to Nicodemus because Jesus is already rooted in the life of his heavenly Father by spending consistent time with him (like John 2). 2) We notice that Nicodemus made time at night, even though it was outside of the normal social times of meeting with someone to meet with Jesus. Nicodemus made it a priority to meet with Jesus. And we encounter that Jesus and Nicodemus vulnerably share with each other: Nicodemus vulnerably shares his questions, confusion, misunderstandings, and assumptions. And Jesus vulnerably shares answers to Nicodemus in a vulnerable and open manner. Jesus shares openly with Nicodemus in a way that he doesn’t share with all people in public. Jesus shares vulnerably from his own life with God. In this case, Jesus is God, but he’s vulnerably sharing God’s presence with Nicodemus in this moment.
In John 2-3, we encounter the presence of God that Jesus spends time with – extends out into this vulnerable conversation with Nicodemus, so that Nicodemus can encounter God’s presence and revelation in a more personal way. Jesus was known for aiming at vulnerably sharing from his life with God to someone specific. Jesus was known by the mark of vulnerably sharing his life with God. What mark are you aiming for?
Every time a Bills’ game is on in our house one of my kids will ask, “Which team are you?” “Are you the Bills?” And I’ll say, “yes.” And inevitably, it seems, one of my kids will say, “I’m for the other team.” Last week during the Kansas City game, one of my kids said they were rooting for Kansas City. Julia responded, “Then go get all your Bills gear from your room, and give it to me.” Living in WNY, a lot of time, energy, and resources are invested in helping the next generation enter into Bills Mafia: TV time, money for tickets, money for apparel, tailgating, waiting in traffic, etc. Many of us aim to guide all WNYers to become fans of the Bills.
In John 3, we encounter taking the same approach to help Nicodemus enter God’s kingdom. Jesus sacrificially invests in Nicodemus to help him encounter God’s abundant life. And ultimately, sacrificed his life on the cross, to help Nicodemus overcome sin, and enter into God’s Kingdom. Jesus sacrificially invests time, energy, and resources to meet with Nicodemus so that he can help him enter God’s Kingdom.
In John 2-3, we encounter the presence of God that Jesus spends time with extends out into vulnerable conversation with Nicodemus, and extends out into sacrificial investment in Nicodemus to help him enter into God’s kingdom. Jesus was known for aiming at sacrificial investment in his heavenly Father’s mission to have all people enter into his abundant life. Specifically, Jesus aimed at sacrificial investment for God’s mission to reach Nicodemus – to have Nicodemus enter into God’s Kingdom. Jesus was known by the mark of sacrificially investing for God’s mission. What mark are you aiming for?
What marks are we aiming for? In our context, we’re tempted to aim at several marks that we’re told are indicative of success – that are indicative of entering into an abundant life.
In Nicodemus’ life, he was tempted similarly. Nicodemus had the opportunity to be tempted to be accepted by leaders of the Jewish religious community. Nicodemus was tempted to keep his authority as a Jewish religious leader. Nicodemus was tempted to connect with God in the ways he was used to – within the Jewish system.
Yet, by what we encounter in John 7:45-52, The aim of Nicodemus’ life was directed toward new marks, because of his encounter with Jesus. Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied. “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.” Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.” (John 7:45-52)
Because of Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus, we see that the aim of his life changed because he met with Jesus. We also see that the aim of his life changed in that we encounter him sharing from his encounter with Jesus – to the religious leaders, in his counter question to them – to consider if Jesus might be God, as he claims to be. And finally, we see that the aim of Nicodemu’s life changed in that, he sacrificially invests for God’s mission. Nicodemus sacrificially invests himself – puts his reputation, his credibility, his membership in the Jewish religious community – on the line, to help others possibly enter God’s Kingdom too.
We see further evidence of Jesus impacting the aim of Nicodemus’ life in that Nicodemus was one of the men who helped bury Jesus, after his death on the cross (see John 19:38-39).
When we look at the example of Jesus, and the example of Nicodemus, we see that we can evaluate their lives by the time they spent with God’s presence, by who they vulnerably shared God’s presence with, and by how they sacrificially invested themselves for others to enter into God’s Kingdom.
Jesus and Nicodemus became known for these marks. Jesus and Nicodemus became known for aiming at: spending time with God’s presence. Vulnerably sharing from their time with God’s presence. And sacrificially investing for God’s presence to be made known to others. And in turn, they lived into the abundant life of God and guided others to experience it as well.
How can we know if we’re living into God’s vision for an abundant life? How can we know if we’re being successful at our mission to guide all people to abundant life in Jesus? We need to allow Jesus to direct what we’re aiming for. We need to allow Jesus' rhythms and habits to direct what we’re aiming for. We need to allow Jesus' rhythms and habits to be the standard by how we evaluate the success of achieving the mission.
Can we see the marks of Jesus’ life in our life? We can check for these marks by asking:
1) When will I meet with Jesus today, tomorrow, and the next day, and the days following? 2) Who am I vulnerably sharing with this week? 3) And what am I doing to help someone enter God’s Kingdom this year?
If you’re worn out from aiming at the success of the world, I invite you to turn your aim toward Jesus. Meet with Jesus. Share your frustrations, longings, and needs to Jesus, and allow him to vulnerably share back to you that he cares for you, that he loves you – that he wants you to experience the most out of the life God has for you – that he wants to guide you away from death, and toward his life-giving, abundant life. I invite you to discern sacrificially investing in the life of Jesus, surrendering control of your life to him, in faith, and uniting to his life in baptism. Please reach out to me, or another trusted follower of Jesus, to help you take any of those steps of faith toward Jesus.
If you’ve already entrusted your life to Jesus, I invite you to consider what your life is aiming for. What marks are you tempted to aim for? What are you tempted to aim for, that is not in pursuit of Jesus? To help you evaluate what you’re aiming for, I invite you to use the following three questions to help you evaluate today, and in the days, weeks, and months to come: When did I meet with Jesus today? Who am I vulnerably sharing with this week? What am I doing to help someone enter God’s Kingdom this year?
In the seats around you are some target stickers. I invite you to mentally label each red ring of the sticker as one of these questions. Center: When did I meet with Jesus today?
To help you aim for this mark, put a sticker on your Bible, or your phone (wherever you spend time with God’s word). Middle: Who am I vulnerably sharing with this week? Put a sticker by an actual person’s name on fridge or mirror or wherever you’ll see it of the names of people you will share vulnerably with from your life with Jesus, and they from their life with Jesus. Or, put a bullseye emoji next to the names of those people in your phone. Or, put a sticker on a coffee cup, to remind you of the rhythm you have of sharing in community with those people. Outer: What am I doing to help someone enter God’s Kingdom this year? Put a sticker by an actual person’s name on fridge or mirror or wherever you’ll see it of the names of people you’re going to intentionally invest in helping them enter God’s Kingdom this year. It’s not a commitment that you’ll make it happen on your own, but a commitment to make an investment toward them entering God’s Kingdom. Or, put a bullseye emoji next to the names of those people in your phone. Or a sticker on your wallet about where your dollars are invested for God’s mission. Or a sticker on a mission partner’s prayer card or newsletter. Or a sticker on your calendar, of how you’re going to invest your time for God’s mission (locally and globally). Or a sticker on your lunch box, or gym membership card, as a reminder of how you’re going to invest your energy toward helping people enter God’s Kingdom this year.
Imagine these circles as overlapping circles from our “strategy Venn diagram.” What marks are you aiming for? When will you meet with Jesus today, tomorrow, and the next day? Who are you vulnerably sharing with this week? What are you doing to help someone enter God’s Kingdom this year?