the hidden river of my life


pursued by love


It’s always a privilege to spend time around college folks, like yourself. So thank you for the opportunity. 

It’s such a pleasure for me because it was during college that I was converted. I grew up going to a church where using your brain was strictly frowned upon. 
Not that such frowning was uncommon, though. There was a lot being frowned on, and the message I grew up getting loud and clear was that one way or another; I was going to hell. 
So my first semester in college was spent rebelling from all that. 

As fun as that was, it wasn’t fun for very long. Not long after I found myself lost and longing. It was my good fortune to fall in among a lutheran student ministry, like yours. 
It was truly an experience of the “Freedom of the Gospel,” as we say, to be among Christians who weren’t afraid to use their brains and who talked about a God who wasn’t out to judge, but love.

So I hope you will think of yourselves as evangelists, missionaries and emissaries of the Gospel. Because you are. The college campus is most certainly a mission-field these days, and you most certainly have something to offer to it. I hope you will.  

So thank you for the occasion to come and spend some time with you all. It is truly an honor. Thank you.

-But that is not the only reason it is fun to be around college folks!

Because, and I don’t know if you know this, but college students have a reputation, and not one of obeying Jesus, but disobeying him!
*Did you know that?
The general perception of college students is you all spend these years doing the sorts of things respectable Christians would never be caught doing!
*I suspect you did

So it is refreshing to be around Christians who aren’t pretending! 

Because the Truth is, we all disobey Jesus. Even so-called “respectable” Christians. Only their disobedience is more hidden. Hidden in their very respectability.
You, however, aren’t afforded the illusion to pretend. And it is nice to be amongst people who aren’t pretending. So thank you. 

Plus, the Truth is, with scripture like today’s, I can rest assured you’ve disobeyed Jesus!


At this point in the Gospel Jesus has made it quite plain that he is the sort of Messiah who will die. And here Jesus is just trying to get that through to the disciples! Only, as Mark notes, “…they did not understand and they were afraid to ask him.”

*You ever been there? Not getting some concept in class, while everyone else nods along, and you’re too afraid to ask and admit you don’t get it. 

If you are, then you’re in good company. You can relate to the disciples.

Well anyway, instead of just admitting they don’t get it, the disciples start jockeying for who gets Jesus most. 
*Their petty bickering only proving how little they get Jesus.

Once they stop journeying for the day, Jesus confronts them. Good Teacher that he is, he turns their bickering into a teaching moment. Telling the disciples that their greatness will be measured by their meagerness. And to drive his point home, he picks up a child and compares himself to that child!
Did you get that? Jesus compares himself to the child, NOT the other way ‘round!

So, and be honest, how many of you have obeyed Jesus on this? 
None of you, I suspect! Because you didn’t get into a fine college like this by coming in last, did you? No, you had to work to get here. Make sure you didn’t come in last!
Perhaps everyone didn’t get first, but none of you got last to be here. 

And, you haven’t been following Jesus’ advice to get along here either, have you?
None of you have waited around and turned in an assignment late so when your professor asked why you missed the deadline, you could tell them Jesus said to be greatest you must be last - and you wanted to make sure you were last!
No! That’s no way to get along in college! 

Or in life for that matter.
*In fact, and I hate to point this out, but your adherence to deadlines is one of the ways college is working to turn you into a “respectable” Christian
Terrible, I know! May God save you from it.

Because, while coming in last may not be how you got to college, it’s probably how you got here tonight, isn’t it?

How many of you have had to change majors? Or, how many of you, after getting a series of low marks, have at least thought about it? That’d be all of us, wouldn’t it?

Truthfully, a major part of my conversion, was a series of sudden and drastic failures. A major I had once shown promise in, suddenly dried up. Where I had once done so well, now I found myself sitting in the place Jesus commends us to come in, last in the class. 
And let me tell you, it wasn’t pleasant.

And we all know what that’s like, don’t we?
Even those of us who have become obsessed with getting number one, have a loss hidden behind each victory. Don’t we?
The relationships we put on the back-burner so we could get a little more studying in. The classmates we needlessly compared ourselves to and competed with to make sure our name was first on the ledger. A win in the classroom and loss in life.

Truthfully, anyone whose ever heard Jesus utter these words, knows what its like to come last…

And so, if that’s you tonight, if you can’t pretend otherwise, then listen up! 
If you’ve gotten a paper back with the marks, “see me after class,” then you’re the type of student who comes in the top of Jesus’ class!
If you’re here with another failed relationship, or a total inability to strike up a relationship, then you’re just the kind of company Jesus loves best to keep!
If you’re here, and you’re wondering what you’re doing here, then you’re right where Jesus looks first to find company!

The hard part of what Jesus is telling us tonight, is we can’t make a contest out of coming in last. Can we? *Can you imagine? The Olympics of Last Place.” Although, it might be compelling.
But that would just be making last one more in a series of contests. And Jesus has not come to add one more item to your already crowded to-do list!

No, what Jesus is doing is describing. Describing the kinds of folks he’s come for! 
Jesus isn’t telling you to get close to him by coming last, he’s saying something more radical! He's promising you that when you come last, and we all will, he won’t leave you.

And isn’t that what’s so scary about coming in last, anyway? 
That maybe everyone will go on without us. Leave us behind.

What Jesus promises you, though, is when you find yourself in last place - you won’t be last. Because coming up behind you will be the one who became last of all for you; Jesus Christ! Jesus is the kind of Messiah who dies! And death is the great last place, isn’t it?

By his death, Jesus took every last place and turned it into starting line of life with him!

These failures we all have: Coming last. Getting the low mark. Being stuck at the bottom of the ladder. Not getting the date, these are all opportunities for Jesus! 
Opportunities for Jesus to be your savior! Opportunities to heal you of your illusions of saving yourself! Opportunities to make you into the kind of person your classmates are looking for; someone who knows how to do what Jesus said, “welcome the last.” Because you know what it’s like, and you can talk with honesty about how hard it is, and how good it is when Jesus finds you there!

These loses of yours, they are the school of the cross whereby you learn not to talk about grace, but live by it!

It’s an ongoing struggle, I know. One loss doesn’t get you there. 
But the Good News - sort of - is all it takes is once! When suddenly, for one hot second, you stop trying to save yourself. And then, you find salvation hidden in the last place you thought to look! Not the top of the class, but the bottom!
And there Jesus will be, slumming it with the sort of folks he loves best to keep company with! The folks he puts on the top of his guest list every time!

So tonight, brush off your losses! Put ‘em on the mantel even! 
Because believe it or not, they’re the very things that got you here. The marks that make you great in Jesus’ eyes!

If you don’t have any loses yet, and I doubt you don’t, but if you don’t, worry not. Because the time will come. And when it does, get yourself in the presence of Jon, or some other minister, who will preach to you about the savior who came for the least, lost, little and last!

And right there, in the midst of that, Jesus won’t be leaving you behind, but drawing close. Giving you a victory of another sort, one that isn’t earned, but given, one that will never grow old - his victory!

Soon Jesus will welcome you to his great victory feast to prove that! 
Come first, if you’re feeling especially last of all lately; but rest assured, Jesus has already put all your names at the top of his guest list! Your losses are simple the marks of kindred spirits with the guest of honor, Jesus Christ! And that makes you more than a conqueror through Christ who loves you tonight!

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