A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on August 30, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Eph 6:10-20:
The Whole Armor of God
"10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."
When I was kid, I used to watch old movies with my friends after school, including Grade z Gladiator movies made in Italy, Hercules, various super heroes, and … The Three Musketeers.
I can vividly remember them gallantly crossing their swords and crying out together, “All for One and One for All!”
It was a rallying cry, urging the Musketeers on into war. In a similar way, the Apostle Paul urges us to take up the full armor of God, and issues a rather similar exhortation that we'll call
“4 Alls for prayer in the Spirit”. Namely:
1) all times
2) all prayer
3) all perseverance
4) all the saints
These ‘alls’ come from v. 18 of our reading from Ephesians Chapter 6, in which Paul instructs believers in prayer, and this verse comes in the context of Paul’s exhortation to believers to Put on God's armor because we are engaged in spiritual warfare.
Verse 12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The evil we see manifested around us starts as a spiritual force.
We are by nature spiritual beings who have a physical body. We are enfleshed spirits. Therefore, to keep a truly Christian outlook and mindset, we must think in spiritual terms. Not to think spiritually is to be led by the flesh, as Paul tells the Corinthians:
“But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way.” (I Cor. 3:1)
Flesh and Spirit are contrasted here as opposing one another. The flesh is understood as an evil principle that dwells within me and which can drag me down into sin, but the Spirit is the source of life and peace, as in Eph 5: 18: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit”…
To be focused on the flesh at its worst is to indulge in debauchery, excess, or pleasures of the flesh which dissipate our life energy, or which may cause us to be addicted to various substances or actions, such as gambling or drinking. In a more subtle way, we become fleshly when we seek to be self-sufficient and do things “my way' without any thought of the Lord or what He wants.
We may not be engaging in any gross or carnal sins, but I guarantee that every one of us struggles with self-centeredness and self-sufficiency every day. It's as natural to us as breathing. And that's the point: it's natural or fleshly. We don't have to think about it or choose it, we do it as the default setting.
To be filled with the Spirit is the opposite of being fleshly. It's God’s plan for us to become fruitful as Christians. The result of being filled with the spirit is found in Eph. 5:19,20:
“…addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
So then, the primary fruits of the spirit are gratitude to God and worship of God, accompanied by mutual submission to our brothers and sisters in Christ – in other words, the fulfillment of the two great Commandments: Love God and Love others.
To be led by the Spirit is to be directed by and controlled by the Spirit, just as Jesus was when he was here on earth. His continual practice was to only do what he saw the Father doing and to speak that which the Father wanted him to speak. In Henry Blackaby's terminology, Jesus observed what God the Father was doing, and joined him in it.
If we are to emulate Him and do greater things than he did, we must be Spiritually minded and we must be led by and directed by the Spirit. We do this on a day to day basis primarily through prayer.
To pray in the Spirit is to pray in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. We are not naturally able to do this and we are pitifully limited when it comes to understanding God’s will for us, but Thanks be to God, …”the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. “ (Rom. 8: 26, 27)
So we really don’t know what we’re doing when we pray, but Prayer is the fuel that starts us up and keeps us going as a Christian, and it is the vehicle that God has determined to use in order to get things done. So Paul instructs us when to pray, how to pray, and for whom to pray in this very short teaching on prayer ‘in the spirit”.
Let’s look at each of these All’s individually:
1) All Times: We are to pray always, in all circumstances (v.16), to pray without ceasing (I Thes. 5:17), (Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.) In Luke 18:1, Jesus tells us that we “ought always to pray...
So how do we do that?
2) All Prayer
One of the oldest applications of this exhortation to pray always is called the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This is simple and basically says everything we need to say in prayer. And it has been used as the basis for continual prayer for thousands of years. One technique of applying this is to use of prayer rope and to intersperse the Our Father along with the Jesus Prayer. The idea is to practice this to such an extent that it becomes the “Prayer of the Heart”, as natural as breathing. TheAnglican Rosary is based on this idea.
But there are perhaps as many ways to pray as there are people. Here are some possible ways we can pray:
Memorize Scripture and pray it back to God.
Sing to the Lord in Prayer
Pray in a 'Prayer Language”
Pray while you walk around the neighborhood
Pray over every step you make while you slowly walk around your
yard or garden.
Read a passage of Scripture slowly and then stop when something stands out to you, contemplating it and then praying over it to God. (Lectio Divina)
Use a map of the World to pray over hotspots and the work of different churches or ministries. Last week, we prayed for Justin and Hunter, who will be studying in Evanston and Scotland respectively. Our friends, Larry and Cathy Westfall will also be travelling to Scotland to help establish a church so we could go to Mapquest pray over Illinois and Scotland.
Write out a list of answers to prayer and thank God for them.
Pray in concert with others for revival – as we did during the Divine Experiment.
Establish a prayer room– as we wish to do at Hope House and then line up as many people to pray as possible, establishing a 24/7 approach to prayer. The Moravians have actually had a prayer room going continuously for 130 years! Now that's prayer without ceasing!
Pray the daily offices using the forms from the Book of Common Prayer. Last night Cindy and I had the interesting experience of logging on to Skype and praying Compline with a group of folks from Chattannooga! The list is endless.
Our prayer is worship in the Spirit, just as Jesus said in John 4: 23, 24: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship is spirit and truth.”
Moving on to the third of our 'Alls”, we must pray with:
3)Peseverance: In Luke 18:1 Jesus tells us that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Much of our prayer will be dry, dusty, cold and mechanical. It's just part and parcel of being human, made of dust. We can't endure very much excitement or extraordinary spiritual experience. It wears us out. Therefore, we should expect that our prayers will be routine.
This is not sinful or unspiritual. Many people who criticize Christians for praying mechanically have never tried to pray regularly much less always. Anyone who has every tried to pray frequently can tell you that the human body does not cooperate well with regular or constant prayer. It gets tired and is easily distracted. God knows this and is not offended. What he likes is when we press through the tiredness and pray anyway!
Francis DeSales had this to say about dryness in prayer:
“Be willing to accept dryness and lack of consoloations for however long they last. Beat upon the heavens with your cry but, at the same time, preserve a kind of holy indifference. “God, I will endure this as long as you want me to. Just support me.”...This kind of prayer, the prayer which we force ourselves to make, is most acceptable to God. “ (The Committed Life, pg.138).
Finally, 4) All the Saints:
Paul shows us the way here as in many of his letters he tells the believers he is praying for them:
Romans 1:10: ...”without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers”...
Phil 1:3,4: “ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy”...
Col. 1:3: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you”...
Col. 4:12: “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers”...
1 Thes 1:2: “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers”...
2 Thes. 1:11,12: “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ”.
We echo this in our prayer cycle during the prayers of the people, praying not only individual prayer needs, but for other churches on our list. We pray for 'all the saints' – yet another reason why our church name is significant, and possibly why it is such a popular name for Anglican churches.
Summary
God is looking for people who want to know Him, who want to communicate with Him and Cooperate with him in his work. The way we do this is to Pray in the Spirit. I invite and challenge us all to Pray always, in all manner of prayer, with all perseverance, for all the saints. As we do this we will indeed become God's intimate friends and partners in His work. AMEN.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009
No Rotten Words
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on August 9, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Ephesians 4:25-5:2.
Complete the following sentence: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but ….(words will never hurt me.)
True? … Not so much.
I think all of us can remember experiences like this one. You’re playing on the school playground and the smartest and most athletic kid in the class repeatedly upbraids you for mistakes you make, calling you stupid. You put up a brave front at the time, but afterward you run home and pour out your heart to your mom, cut to the quick, almost inconsolable. You then remember this incident for the next 43 years!
Words have amazing power to hurt us – which is why the Apostle Paul tells us emphatically: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Eph. 4:29). Let’s hear this same verse in several different versions.
Here’s the New American Standard:
“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”
The New International Version: 29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
The Message: 29Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
The Amplified Version: 29Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it.
(Note: Many different versions of the Bible can be viewed easily at biblegateway.com; or crosswalk.com)
The Greek word sapros, translated in the ESV as “Corrupting” also applies to“bad” (putrid) fish (Matt. 13:48) or “bad” (rotten) fruit (Luke 6:43), hence the title for today’s sermon: “No Rotten Words”. I was also thinking about “Yucky Ucky Words… but you get the drift.
As a professional counselor, I think I could build an entire practice on this one verse. All of us get in trouble because of the words we use. The Apostle James warns us:
5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. (James 3:5-10).
YOW! This is an example of having a problem with the parts of the Bible you do understand! The Tongue is set on fire by Hell, full of deadly poison, rotten to the core, a restless evil! Whoever can tame it is a perfect, or whole, complete person. The rest of us suffer because of the things we say to one another.
God’s Purpose for our Communication:
In today’s reading from Ephesians we not only see a description of unwholesome communication, but several key purposes that God desires for our conversation:
V. 25: Be Truthful: Speak the truth to one another
V. 26: Be Angry: But use your anger for righteous purposes.
V. 29: Build up Others: (Edification)
V. 29: Give Grace to Others
V. 32: Express Kindness
V. 32: Extend Forgiveness
This type of communication has an overall goal: To walk in love, imitating our Savior, and to be unified with others. The practice of these virtues will lead to a wholesome church and family life, confounding the Devil, who always seeks an opportunity.
So, our challenge is before us. What I’d like to do for the rest of our time together today is outline some observations about why we so easily get off the track and use rotten language, and then offer some suggestions about how to get back on track when we get derailed.
Relapse Triggers
In the world of Drug and Alcohol recovery, the concept of Relapse Triggers is central. These are the things that predispose us to failure. They’re very mundane and are often summarized with the acronym HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.
In our family, we used to see these things very acutely when our children were small. We’d have them out in public and they would get tired and hungry and then just suddenly have a meltdown – usually in the most embarrassing situations.
When my daughter Lindsey would get angry with her sister Leah, she would lash out at her verbally with an intense hiss that sounded like a wildcat. I used to call her Little Miss Oral Aggression – a title which would hardly fit her today, by the way.
I think you can supply plenty of your own examples to illustrate the point that we are frail physical creatures and our bodily needs can easily lead us to ‘tongue failure”.
Failure to Communicate
Clint Eastwood had a famous line in one of his movies. Fill in the blank again: “What we have here is a: (failure to communicate).
The most common thing I observe in my counseling work is that we fail to communicate because we so easily get off the subject.
We do this because we tend to ramble in our statements, to verbally attack each other and to become defensive when attacked.
Let’s just take a common scenario. Both parties start off with good intentions as they talk about something potentially problematic, such as how to use money. Almost immediately conflict arises in the mere statement of “The Problem”. Someone uses the word “You” and follows it with a criticism couched in a generalization: “You never spend money the right way”. You always spend money the wrong way”. You never save enough. You always save too much…etc., etc.
There are at least four things wrong with these types of statements.
1) They start with the word “You”, making whatever follows PERSONAL.
2) They use generalizations which cannot possibly be universally true. Too much for what? What is the right way ? The Wrong way?
3) They fail to specify the actual problem. What specifically are you complaining about?
4) They contain no suggestions about how to solve the problem.
We could say that these statements are “semantically ill-formed”. They don’t really convey meaning accurately. They are faulty or Rotten.
Because our statements are faulty, they lead others to misunderstand us and to become defensive. When we hear sentences that start with the word “You”, we immediately brace ourselves for a possible attack - even when what follows is positive.
If a personal attack does come, we then immediately put up our defensive shields and mount a counter attack: “Oh, yeah! So’s your Old Lady…” It’s a “1,2” action: 1) Defend, 2) Counterattack.
This quickly degenerates into name-calling and raised voices.
Now if we had any sense, we’d stop at this point. Someone would say, “You know what, I think this is getting out of hand. We need to stop and regroup.”
But, no. In our desire to be right and to WIN, we keep on going, usually making things worse by the minute. We defend and counterattack back and forth, and before long we have completely forgotten what it was we were talking about. Instead of trying to solve a problem, we are now “fighting about fighting” – and no one wins. And by the way, the unwritten rule about arguing is “The first person to raise his or her voice loses.”
In other words, you lose your credibility when you yell. The other person quickly observes that you’re out of control and they conclude that they don’t have to listen to anything else you say. You lose – even if you’re right!
So that’s a pretty good description of some things we do wrongly as we try to communicate. What should we do instead?
Here are four suggestions to address the four errors we mentioned before.
1) Use the passive voice. The active voice is very clear and direct: “I deposited money in the bank.” The subject acts directly on the object. Easily understandable.
But the active voice can also take the form of a direct attack: “You spent all my money!”
It’s often better to state a problem in the passive voice.
Instead of saying “You spent all my money!”, use the passive form to avoid the personal attack: “There’s a problem with our finances.” Or, if you want to really take a ‘one-down’ position:
“I have a problem with my checkbook.”
If this seems a bit contrived to you, just ask yourself whether the goal is to express your anger at the other person, or whether you want to solve the problem. The answer to this question may help with the motivation to ‘think first, talk later”.
2) Be specific. The old saying is: “All Generalizations are false, including this one.” Avoid using the big ‘universal qualifiers” such as ‘always’ and ‘never’. Instead of “all my money”, specify 20 dollars, 200 dollars or 2000 dollars, etc.
3) State the problem in concrete, specific terms (again using the passive voice to avoid personalizing the accusation) “On Tuesday at 4:00 pm I got a call from the bank saying that they are going to freeze all our accounts”…
4) Be specific with your request to solve the problem. Now I say ‘request’ because every time you communicate with someone, there is an underlying, embedded request: “Will you please listen to me?” is perhaps the most basic request we make of casual acquaintances and friends. With family, the request is: “Will you please love me?” These are broad, assumed requests. The specific form of the request might be “Will you please love me by helping me solve this bank problem?” We don’t normally state this underlying request, but it’s important to know it’s there because even when you are addressing a problem, you are actually asking for something good from the other person – their time and attention, their cooperation in solving a problem.
Then when we do make the actual proposal to solve the problem, it must be stated specifically: “Will you please sit down with me tonight after supper and look at the bank statement?” Will you please help me set up a budget?”
If you are asking for something more personal, use the same technique. Don’t say, “Will you please love me more?” Instead ask:” Will you please talk to me, or hug me, or go for a walk with me?” The cardinal rule is: “If you want it, you have to ask for it.’ Don’t assume the other person knows what you need and will simply supply your need when you want it, without you having to ask for it. That’s called ‘mind-reading’ and it just doesn’t work.
Remember, you are asking for something good, so ask for it in a good way. Instead of using the rotten form: “Why don’t you ever…” use: “Will you please…” You are much more likely to get what you want if you ask for it positively and specifically.
The corollary to this is that if someone else is asking you something in a general way, ask: “What specifically can I do to make it better for you?” The goal is to get the request stated in concrete, behavioral terms such as: “I would like you to pray with me right now about our finances.” This is a ‘doable’ request.
You can even ‘check it out’ to make sure you understand the request: “So… you want me to pray with you right now about this?” If the other person nods their head up and down and says, “Yes.” you’ve hit pay dirt and you’re well on your way to solving the problem.
This is especially true if you are being personally attacked. If they say, “You’re bad or wicked!” You respond (not sarcastically) “In what way do you think I am bad or wicked?” This, I believe is a concrete way we can “turn the other cheek” as Jesus said. The goal is to get the complaint stated as clearly and specifically as possible and then to actually solve the problem with a specific solution.
The very most important things to communicate are Apology and Forgiveness. If you tell me I have sinned against you, I MUST, as a Christian, seek your forgiveness and make specific restitution if possible. If I ask you to forgive me, you as a Christian, MUST forgive me and reckon the offense “Paid in Full” by the blood of Christ. The request for, and extension of Forgiveness is Christian Communication par excellence and it’s what keeps us unified as family, friends and church members.
In almost every case, the use of these communication techniques will help you fulfill the ‘ministry of reconciliation’ and help you actually get what you want more often than not.
Summary
These are just a few pointers that relate to the most egregious ways that we let Rotten words come out of our mouths. Remember again that the goals of our communication with others are to:
Speak the truth to one another
To use our anger for righteous purposes
To Build up Others
To Give Grace to Others
To Express Kindness
To Extend Forgiveness
If you do these things, you will show yourself to be a mature, Christ-like person, one who not only says they love God, but actually demonstrates it in conversations with others.
May God give us Grace to practice this discipline – and Grace to extend to each other as we do so. AMEN.
Complete the following sentence: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but ….(words will never hurt me.)
True? … Not so much.
I think all of us can remember experiences like this one. You’re playing on the school playground and the smartest and most athletic kid in the class repeatedly upbraids you for mistakes you make, calling you stupid. You put up a brave front at the time, but afterward you run home and pour out your heart to your mom, cut to the quick, almost inconsolable. You then remember this incident for the next 43 years!
Words have amazing power to hurt us – which is why the Apostle Paul tells us emphatically: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Eph. 4:29). Let’s hear this same verse in several different versions.
Here’s the New American Standard:
“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”
The New International Version: 29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
The Message: 29Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
The Amplified Version: 29Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it.
(Note: Many different versions of the Bible can be viewed easily at biblegateway.com; or crosswalk.com)
The Greek word sapros, translated in the ESV as “Corrupting” also applies to“bad” (putrid) fish (Matt. 13:48) or “bad” (rotten) fruit (Luke 6:43), hence the title for today’s sermon: “No Rotten Words”. I was also thinking about “Yucky Ucky Words… but you get the drift.
As a professional counselor, I think I could build an entire practice on this one verse. All of us get in trouble because of the words we use. The Apostle James warns us:
5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. (James 3:5-10).
YOW! This is an example of having a problem with the parts of the Bible you do understand! The Tongue is set on fire by Hell, full of deadly poison, rotten to the core, a restless evil! Whoever can tame it is a perfect, or whole, complete person. The rest of us suffer because of the things we say to one another.
God’s Purpose for our Communication:
In today’s reading from Ephesians we not only see a description of unwholesome communication, but several key purposes that God desires for our conversation:
V. 25: Be Truthful: Speak the truth to one another
V. 26: Be Angry: But use your anger for righteous purposes.
V. 29: Build up Others: (Edification)
V. 29: Give Grace to Others
V. 32: Express Kindness
V. 32: Extend Forgiveness
This type of communication has an overall goal: To walk in love, imitating our Savior, and to be unified with others. The practice of these virtues will lead to a wholesome church and family life, confounding the Devil, who always seeks an opportunity.
So, our challenge is before us. What I’d like to do for the rest of our time together today is outline some observations about why we so easily get off the track and use rotten language, and then offer some suggestions about how to get back on track when we get derailed.
Relapse Triggers
In the world of Drug and Alcohol recovery, the concept of Relapse Triggers is central. These are the things that predispose us to failure. They’re very mundane and are often summarized with the acronym HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.
In our family, we used to see these things very acutely when our children were small. We’d have them out in public and they would get tired and hungry and then just suddenly have a meltdown – usually in the most embarrassing situations.
When my daughter Lindsey would get angry with her sister Leah, she would lash out at her verbally with an intense hiss that sounded like a wildcat. I used to call her Little Miss Oral Aggression – a title which would hardly fit her today, by the way.
I think you can supply plenty of your own examples to illustrate the point that we are frail physical creatures and our bodily needs can easily lead us to ‘tongue failure”.
Failure to Communicate
Clint Eastwood had a famous line in one of his movies. Fill in the blank again: “What we have here is a: (failure to communicate).
The most common thing I observe in my counseling work is that we fail to communicate because we so easily get off the subject.
We do this because we tend to ramble in our statements, to verbally attack each other and to become defensive when attacked.
Let’s just take a common scenario. Both parties start off with good intentions as they talk about something potentially problematic, such as how to use money. Almost immediately conflict arises in the mere statement of “The Problem”. Someone uses the word “You” and follows it with a criticism couched in a generalization: “You never spend money the right way”. You always spend money the wrong way”. You never save enough. You always save too much…etc., etc.
There are at least four things wrong with these types of statements.
1) They start with the word “You”, making whatever follows PERSONAL.
2) They use generalizations which cannot possibly be universally true. Too much for what? What is the right way ? The Wrong way?
3) They fail to specify the actual problem. What specifically are you complaining about?
4) They contain no suggestions about how to solve the problem.
We could say that these statements are “semantically ill-formed”. They don’t really convey meaning accurately. They are faulty or Rotten.
Because our statements are faulty, they lead others to misunderstand us and to become defensive. When we hear sentences that start with the word “You”, we immediately brace ourselves for a possible attack - even when what follows is positive.
If a personal attack does come, we then immediately put up our defensive shields and mount a counter attack: “Oh, yeah! So’s your Old Lady…” It’s a “1,2” action: 1) Defend, 2) Counterattack.
This quickly degenerates into name-calling and raised voices.
Now if we had any sense, we’d stop at this point. Someone would say, “You know what, I think this is getting out of hand. We need to stop and regroup.”
But, no. In our desire to be right and to WIN, we keep on going, usually making things worse by the minute. We defend and counterattack back and forth, and before long we have completely forgotten what it was we were talking about. Instead of trying to solve a problem, we are now “fighting about fighting” – and no one wins. And by the way, the unwritten rule about arguing is “The first person to raise his or her voice loses.”
In other words, you lose your credibility when you yell. The other person quickly observes that you’re out of control and they conclude that they don’t have to listen to anything else you say. You lose – even if you’re right!
So that’s a pretty good description of some things we do wrongly as we try to communicate. What should we do instead?
Here are four suggestions to address the four errors we mentioned before.
1) Use the passive voice. The active voice is very clear and direct: “I deposited money in the bank.” The subject acts directly on the object. Easily understandable.
But the active voice can also take the form of a direct attack: “You spent all my money!”
It’s often better to state a problem in the passive voice.
Instead of saying “You spent all my money!”, use the passive form to avoid the personal attack: “There’s a problem with our finances.” Or, if you want to really take a ‘one-down’ position:
“I have a problem with my checkbook.”
If this seems a bit contrived to you, just ask yourself whether the goal is to express your anger at the other person, or whether you want to solve the problem. The answer to this question may help with the motivation to ‘think first, talk later”.
2) Be specific. The old saying is: “All Generalizations are false, including this one.” Avoid using the big ‘universal qualifiers” such as ‘always’ and ‘never’. Instead of “all my money”, specify 20 dollars, 200 dollars or 2000 dollars, etc.
3) State the problem in concrete, specific terms (again using the passive voice to avoid personalizing the accusation) “On Tuesday at 4:00 pm I got a call from the bank saying that they are going to freeze all our accounts”…
4) Be specific with your request to solve the problem. Now I say ‘request’ because every time you communicate with someone, there is an underlying, embedded request: “Will you please listen to me?” is perhaps the most basic request we make of casual acquaintances and friends. With family, the request is: “Will you please love me?” These are broad, assumed requests. The specific form of the request might be “Will you please love me by helping me solve this bank problem?” We don’t normally state this underlying request, but it’s important to know it’s there because even when you are addressing a problem, you are actually asking for something good from the other person – their time and attention, their cooperation in solving a problem.
Then when we do make the actual proposal to solve the problem, it must be stated specifically: “Will you please sit down with me tonight after supper and look at the bank statement?” Will you please help me set up a budget?”
If you are asking for something more personal, use the same technique. Don’t say, “Will you please love me more?” Instead ask:” Will you please talk to me, or hug me, or go for a walk with me?” The cardinal rule is: “If you want it, you have to ask for it.’ Don’t assume the other person knows what you need and will simply supply your need when you want it, without you having to ask for it. That’s called ‘mind-reading’ and it just doesn’t work.
Remember, you are asking for something good, so ask for it in a good way. Instead of using the rotten form: “Why don’t you ever…” use: “Will you please…” You are much more likely to get what you want if you ask for it positively and specifically.
The corollary to this is that if someone else is asking you something in a general way, ask: “What specifically can I do to make it better for you?” The goal is to get the request stated in concrete, behavioral terms such as: “I would like you to pray with me right now about our finances.” This is a ‘doable’ request.
You can even ‘check it out’ to make sure you understand the request: “So… you want me to pray with you right now about this?” If the other person nods their head up and down and says, “Yes.” you’ve hit pay dirt and you’re well on your way to solving the problem.
This is especially true if you are being personally attacked. If they say, “You’re bad or wicked!” You respond (not sarcastically) “In what way do you think I am bad or wicked?” This, I believe is a concrete way we can “turn the other cheek” as Jesus said. The goal is to get the complaint stated as clearly and specifically as possible and then to actually solve the problem with a specific solution.
The very most important things to communicate are Apology and Forgiveness. If you tell me I have sinned against you, I MUST, as a Christian, seek your forgiveness and make specific restitution if possible. If I ask you to forgive me, you as a Christian, MUST forgive me and reckon the offense “Paid in Full” by the blood of Christ. The request for, and extension of Forgiveness is Christian Communication par excellence and it’s what keeps us unified as family, friends and church members.
In almost every case, the use of these communication techniques will help you fulfill the ‘ministry of reconciliation’ and help you actually get what you want more often than not.
Summary
These are just a few pointers that relate to the most egregious ways that we let Rotten words come out of our mouths. Remember again that the goals of our communication with others are to:
Speak the truth to one another
To use our anger for righteous purposes
To Build up Others
To Give Grace to Others
To Express Kindness
To Extend Forgiveness
If you do these things, you will show yourself to be a mature, Christ-like person, one who not only says they love God, but actually demonstrates it in conversations with others.
May God give us Grace to practice this discipline – and Grace to extend to each other as we do so. AMEN.
Believe
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on August 2, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Ctr., Huntington, WV and based on John 6:24-37
So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
I believe it will rain today…
I can’t believe I found a parking place right by the door!
I believe you’re right about that …
My neighbor believes in reseeding his lawn every fall.
You wouldn’t believe how long it took me!
The undersecretary for congressional obfuscation replied, “I believe so, Senator…”
We use the word ‘believe’ in many different ways, some of them casual and offhand, some of them more thoughtful and considered. Throughout the Bible, God tells us to believe in Him. Today we’re going to consider some of the consequences of Belief and Unbelief in this message entitled “Believe!”
Our Gospel lesson today ends with Jesus’ powerful assertion:
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
He addresses this statement to a crowd whom he had just fed miraculously the day before and who had sought Him out to get some more of that good free food. He calls them out on their transparent greed and admonishes them to labor for the food that endures to eternal life - food that He himself will give them; the food from Heaven, which they are to receive as they do the work of God, namely to believe in him whom God has sent – Jesus.
As always, the crowd displays amazing spiritual depth and insight as they ask, …”what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?”
They don’t realize that they are reenacting the same error that their ancestors made in the wilderness. They just got done eating the loaves and the fishes, the manna from heaven if you will – and they haven’t the slightest clue that pita bread ain’t the real Bread that God has to offer. They saw the sign, but seeing didn’t see!
This crowd illustrates the tragicomic effects of unbelief: spiritual dullness, preoccupation with the belly, and eventual death through lack of true spiritual food.
Jesus is trying to help them understand the blessings of belief in him – Life and Fullness – but they just don’t seem to get it. They are spiritual blockheads. But lest we be too judgmental, let us consider that those of who say we believe may actually struggle with truly believing ourselves.
In the latest issue of Christian Counseling Today magazine, Josh McDowell writes about the “The Beliefs that Impact Everyday Life” He reports about the “Third Millennium Teens” study done by the Barna Research Group, which reveals some startling information. Among the group of teens surveyed, religious beliefs and spirituality were found to be very important. 70% surveyed attended some church youth group and 80% claimed to be Christians.
The Vast majority [of this group] (80%) believes that God created the universe and 84% believe that God is personally involved in people’s lives. Yet in spit of these orthodox views:
63% also believe that Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and all other people pray to the same god, even though they use different names for their god.
87% believe Jesus was a real person who came to earth and 78% believe He was born to a virgin;
yet nearly half (46%) believe He committed sins, and over half (51%) say He died but did not rise from the dead!
48% of teenagers today believe that it doesn’t matter what religious faith you associate with because they all believe the same principles and truth;
58% believe that all religious faiths teach equally valid truth.
67% suspect that there is ‘no way to tell which religion is true”!
Religious Smorgasbord
McDowell comments that these teens are “putting together their own religious canon in a smorgasbord style, believing it is best to pick and choose from the various ideas, concepts of God, and religions around them and construct a tailor-made ‘faith’ that’s just right for them. That way, it will be theirs personally and will offend no one.”
“….the majority of young people have been conditioned to believe that truth is not true for them until they choose to believe it. That’s why 81% claim that ‘all truth is relative to the individual and his/her circumstances.”
Their pragmatic idea that ‘what works right now is right for now’ will eventually lead them down a path of self-destruction” says McDowell. (Quoted in Christian Counseling Today Vol. 16, No. 3.)
Remember, this is a description of teens who mostly identify themselves as Christians! The study goes on to describe the practical effects of unbelief in teens’ lives. Young people who lack a basic biblical belief system are:
· 36% more likely to lie to a friend.
· 48% more likely to cheat on an exam
· 200% more likely to steal
· 200% more likely to physically hurt someone
· 300% more likely to use illegal drugs, and
· 600% more likely to attempt suicide
When the Bible says ‘The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), this is what it looks like. And while this study described teenagers, it doesn’t take much imagination to extend this description out to adults. We see it all around us in the constant public scandals and swindles that come to light almost every day. Overt Unbelief is harmful to individuals and to our society as a whole. But the Postmodernist smorgasbord approach to spiritual things that accepts anything as true is also harmful because it rejects Ultimate Truth altogether. Postmodern Relativism is very absolute about the idea that ‘All truth is relative’. Practitioners of this philosophy says things such as:
“The crisis of this moment has … do with the great Western heresy - that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being.” (Kathryn Jefferts Schori in an address at the recent Convocation of the Episcopal Church).
Any belief system is acceptable to relativists – Buddhist, Hindu, Green - except one that insists on personal belief in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord. When it comes to an exclusive belief in Christ, this must be denounced as heresy and ruthlessly pushed out.
Our own Fr. Peter Schoew has experienced this first hand, having been deposed as a priest in the Episcopal Church for not renouncing his ordination vows when he and his colleagues were found to be too conservative. This is only the most blatant form of persecution. What we must grieve over is the more subtle effects of this intolerance on those who are left to live in this toxic environment.
Here are a few points to emphasize about unorthodox beliefs:
· Heretical, non-orthodox beliefs are corrosive to vibrant faith.
· Continued exposure to unbelief deadens the spirit and leads us away from the Lord.
· Ongoing, undiscerning exposure to unbelief leads not only to deadening of true faith, but to persecution of those who really do believe.
· We must stand for truth for our own sake so that we may experience the fullness of what God has for us – Intimacy with Him, and being fed and watered by His Spirit.
· We must stand for Truth for the sake of those whose faith has been eroded through merciless destruction of True Belief.
· We must remember that those who sit under false teaching suffer.
Example: Our friends in the Worldwide Church of God for almost 30 years. There were captive to a legalistic and false doctrine and they are still grieving over it after coming out 15 years later!
God Himself grieves over those who are being lead astray.
We must pray for them that God might open the eyes of their hearts so that they might experience the Joy of Knowing and Loving Jesus.
But we must also pray for ourselves – that God would daily renew our faith and help us to act upon what we say we believe.
When Jesus says Believe, it is not a suggestion; it is a command. Failure to believe results in eventual hardening of the heart and death – eternal separation from God. As you are hearing this message, the angels are recording your receipt of it and you will be held accountable.
But that is to focus on the negative. What I’d like to leave you with today with are
Three A’s of Belief:
Assent
Accept
Apply
Intellectual Assent means agreeing with God or ‘confessing’ - ‘saying the same thing’ about the Gospel message. Assent acknowledges the plausibility of Belief.
Acceptance goes beyond Assent and opens the door of the heart to Jesus, who stands knocking and waits for admission. Acceptance means placing my trust in Christ as a trustworthy Savior.
Finally, Applying belief means taking the message I have heard and applying the principles to my life in concrete ways. The apostle James says, ‘Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works ‘(Jas 2:18). In other words, put your money where your mouth is. If you say you believe in Christ as your Lord and Savior, prove it by your actions.
Belief in God and Jesus Christ is very important. Despite what some Marine Biologists may say, Belief in Christ in not heretical. In fact Believing is mentioned 84 times in the book of John alone. Listen to a few of the references from John Chapter Six:
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
Belief is what makes you a Christian!
So having said all this, the only thing left to do is to extend an invitation. If you have never believed in Christ, never placed your faith and trust in Him to be your Savior and Lord, now is the appointed day of Salvation. I invite you to pray silently with me this prayer for the Salvation of your soul:
“God, I believe that you exist and that You reward those who diligently seek You. I believe that you sent Jesus Christ to live and die for me so that I shall not perish but have everlasting life with you. Please forgive me of all my sins. Cleanse me and renew a right spirit within me. Give me the joy of your salvation and send your Holy Spirit to live within me. Make me your disciple Lord. Change me and use me as you will – and all for your Glory, through Jesus Christ and in His name I pray.”
If you prayed that prayer with me, rejoice for your name is written in the Book of Life and all the angels in heaven are rejoicing over you right now! Please let me know of your assent and acceptance of Christ so that we might begin to help you apply your new belief in Christ.
AMEN.
So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
I believe it will rain today…
I can’t believe I found a parking place right by the door!
I believe you’re right about that …
My neighbor believes in reseeding his lawn every fall.
You wouldn’t believe how long it took me!
The undersecretary for congressional obfuscation replied, “I believe so, Senator…”
We use the word ‘believe’ in many different ways, some of them casual and offhand, some of them more thoughtful and considered. Throughout the Bible, God tells us to believe in Him. Today we’re going to consider some of the consequences of Belief and Unbelief in this message entitled “Believe!”
Our Gospel lesson today ends with Jesus’ powerful assertion:
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
He addresses this statement to a crowd whom he had just fed miraculously the day before and who had sought Him out to get some more of that good free food. He calls them out on their transparent greed and admonishes them to labor for the food that endures to eternal life - food that He himself will give them; the food from Heaven, which they are to receive as they do the work of God, namely to believe in him whom God has sent – Jesus.
As always, the crowd displays amazing spiritual depth and insight as they ask, …”what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?”
They don’t realize that they are reenacting the same error that their ancestors made in the wilderness. They just got done eating the loaves and the fishes, the manna from heaven if you will – and they haven’t the slightest clue that pita bread ain’t the real Bread that God has to offer. They saw the sign, but seeing didn’t see!
This crowd illustrates the tragicomic effects of unbelief: spiritual dullness, preoccupation with the belly, and eventual death through lack of true spiritual food.
Jesus is trying to help them understand the blessings of belief in him – Life and Fullness – but they just don’t seem to get it. They are spiritual blockheads. But lest we be too judgmental, let us consider that those of who say we believe may actually struggle with truly believing ourselves.
In the latest issue of Christian Counseling Today magazine, Josh McDowell writes about the “The Beliefs that Impact Everyday Life” He reports about the “Third Millennium Teens” study done by the Barna Research Group, which reveals some startling information. Among the group of teens surveyed, religious beliefs and spirituality were found to be very important. 70% surveyed attended some church youth group and 80% claimed to be Christians.
The Vast majority [of this group] (80%) believes that God created the universe and 84% believe that God is personally involved in people’s lives. Yet in spit of these orthodox views:
63% also believe that Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and all other people pray to the same god, even though they use different names for their god.
87% believe Jesus was a real person who came to earth and 78% believe He was born to a virgin;
yet nearly half (46%) believe He committed sins, and over half (51%) say He died but did not rise from the dead!
48% of teenagers today believe that it doesn’t matter what religious faith you associate with because they all believe the same principles and truth;
58% believe that all religious faiths teach equally valid truth.
67% suspect that there is ‘no way to tell which religion is true”!
Religious Smorgasbord
McDowell comments that these teens are “putting together their own religious canon in a smorgasbord style, believing it is best to pick and choose from the various ideas, concepts of God, and religions around them and construct a tailor-made ‘faith’ that’s just right for them. That way, it will be theirs personally and will offend no one.”
“….the majority of young people have been conditioned to believe that truth is not true for them until they choose to believe it. That’s why 81% claim that ‘all truth is relative to the individual and his/her circumstances.”
Their pragmatic idea that ‘what works right now is right for now’ will eventually lead them down a path of self-destruction” says McDowell. (Quoted in Christian Counseling Today Vol. 16, No. 3.)
Remember, this is a description of teens who mostly identify themselves as Christians! The study goes on to describe the practical effects of unbelief in teens’ lives. Young people who lack a basic biblical belief system are:
· 36% more likely to lie to a friend.
· 48% more likely to cheat on an exam
· 200% more likely to steal
· 200% more likely to physically hurt someone
· 300% more likely to use illegal drugs, and
· 600% more likely to attempt suicide
When the Bible says ‘The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), this is what it looks like. And while this study described teenagers, it doesn’t take much imagination to extend this description out to adults. We see it all around us in the constant public scandals and swindles that come to light almost every day. Overt Unbelief is harmful to individuals and to our society as a whole. But the Postmodernist smorgasbord approach to spiritual things that accepts anything as true is also harmful because it rejects Ultimate Truth altogether. Postmodern Relativism is very absolute about the idea that ‘All truth is relative’. Practitioners of this philosophy says things such as:
“The crisis of this moment has … do with the great Western heresy - that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being.” (Kathryn Jefferts Schori in an address at the recent Convocation of the Episcopal Church).
Any belief system is acceptable to relativists – Buddhist, Hindu, Green - except one that insists on personal belief in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord. When it comes to an exclusive belief in Christ, this must be denounced as heresy and ruthlessly pushed out.
Our own Fr. Peter Schoew has experienced this first hand, having been deposed as a priest in the Episcopal Church for not renouncing his ordination vows when he and his colleagues were found to be too conservative. This is only the most blatant form of persecution. What we must grieve over is the more subtle effects of this intolerance on those who are left to live in this toxic environment.
Here are a few points to emphasize about unorthodox beliefs:
· Heretical, non-orthodox beliefs are corrosive to vibrant faith.
· Continued exposure to unbelief deadens the spirit and leads us away from the Lord.
· Ongoing, undiscerning exposure to unbelief leads not only to deadening of true faith, but to persecution of those who really do believe.
· We must stand for truth for our own sake so that we may experience the fullness of what God has for us – Intimacy with Him, and being fed and watered by His Spirit.
· We must stand for Truth for the sake of those whose faith has been eroded through merciless destruction of True Belief.
· We must remember that those who sit under false teaching suffer.
Example: Our friends in the Worldwide Church of God for almost 30 years. There were captive to a legalistic and false doctrine and they are still grieving over it after coming out 15 years later!
God Himself grieves over those who are being lead astray.
We must pray for them that God might open the eyes of their hearts so that they might experience the Joy of Knowing and Loving Jesus.
But we must also pray for ourselves – that God would daily renew our faith and help us to act upon what we say we believe.
When Jesus says Believe, it is not a suggestion; it is a command. Failure to believe results in eventual hardening of the heart and death – eternal separation from God. As you are hearing this message, the angels are recording your receipt of it and you will be held accountable.
But that is to focus on the negative. What I’d like to leave you with today with are
Three A’s of Belief:
Assent
Accept
Apply
Intellectual Assent means agreeing with God or ‘confessing’ - ‘saying the same thing’ about the Gospel message. Assent acknowledges the plausibility of Belief.
Acceptance goes beyond Assent and opens the door of the heart to Jesus, who stands knocking and waits for admission. Acceptance means placing my trust in Christ as a trustworthy Savior.
Finally, Applying belief means taking the message I have heard and applying the principles to my life in concrete ways. The apostle James says, ‘Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works ‘(Jas 2:18). In other words, put your money where your mouth is. If you say you believe in Christ as your Lord and Savior, prove it by your actions.
Belief in God and Jesus Christ is very important. Despite what some Marine Biologists may say, Belief in Christ in not heretical. In fact Believing is mentioned 84 times in the book of John alone. Listen to a few of the references from John Chapter Six:
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
Belief is what makes you a Christian!
So having said all this, the only thing left to do is to extend an invitation. If you have never believed in Christ, never placed your faith and trust in Him to be your Savior and Lord, now is the appointed day of Salvation. I invite you to pray silently with me this prayer for the Salvation of your soul:
“God, I believe that you exist and that You reward those who diligently seek You. I believe that you sent Jesus Christ to live and die for me so that I shall not perish but have everlasting life with you. Please forgive me of all my sins. Cleanse me and renew a right spirit within me. Give me the joy of your salvation and send your Holy Spirit to live within me. Make me your disciple Lord. Change me and use me as you will – and all for your Glory, through Jesus Christ and in His name I pray.”
If you prayed that prayer with me, rejoice for your name is written in the Book of Life and all the angels in heaven are rejoicing over you right now! Please let me know of your assent and acceptance of Christ so that we might begin to help you apply your new belief in Christ.
AMEN.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Prophetic P's and Q's
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on July 12, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV and based on Amos 7:7-15.
Amos 7:7-15
7 This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold, I am setting a plumb linein the midst of my people Israel;I will never again pass by them;9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,
“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,and Israel must go into exileaway from his land.’”
12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
Introduction
When we were homeschooling our daughter Lindsey, we bought a Latin language program for her. Initially, I tried to help her out with her vocabulary words, and I noticed that our basic question words in English: Who What Why, When… seemed to all have Latin counterparts that start with Q. Now I’m no Latin scholar, but I’d like to use a little device today from Latin to help us explore the subject of Prophecy – Old Testament and New.
The basis for this message is our reading from Amos today (7:7-15) in which Amos sees a vision of the plumb line and talks briefly about his role as a prophet. With apologies to the Latin scholars in our midst, I would like for us to consider some Prophetic P’s and Q’s. Namely:
The Personnel of Prophecy or Qui (Who?)
The Purpose of Prophecy – or Quare (Why?)
The Product of Prophecy: Quod (What?)
But first the setting for our passage from Amos:
Personnel (Qui): Amos, a shepherd from the Tekoa who is also a dresser of Sycamore fig trees. He is not a ‘professional’ ‘prophet for profit’ but an ‘amateur’, not a “prophet or the son of a prophet” but someone God called out for a special purpose –
Purpose (Quare): to speak to the northern tribes of Israel about their injustice and unfaithfulness and to warn them about the judgment to come:
Product (Quod): The product that Amos produces is a Prophecy from God, the ‘Word of the Lord”, ‘oracles’ of impending judgment that begin with “Thus says the Lord”, or “Hear this word”. These oracles descry cruelty and oppression by Israel’s neighbors, but also contain accusations and warnings against Israel itself.
In this prophecy there are also Visions with explanations. Our reading today from Amos chapter 7 contains the vision of the plumbline. Earlier in the same chapter are pictures of Locusts coming to eat up the crops and fire devouring the land. The prophetic word comes with metaphorical visions of what the Lord is doing or will do.
It’s also significant to note that Amos uses many different literary techniques. The introduction to Amos from the ESV online says… …”the dominant literary form is satire, with the usual elements of objects of attack, a satiric vehicle …, a satiric norm or standard by which the criticism is conducted, and a prevailing satiric tone… In addition… Amos is a master of smaller forms such as metaphor and simile, epithet (“you cows of Bashan,” 4:1), parallelism, rhetorical questions, and parody … Other genres that find a place in the book include saying or proverb, doom song, woe formula, and visionary writing."
So Prophecy in the Old Testament is a literary product, an art form replete with the techniques of artistry, that stands on its own as Art. All of this is an attempt to get the people’s attention, to call them to repentance and have them return to the Lord before it’s too late and doom comes upon them. Prophecy is ultimately rooted in God’s love and concern for his people. Prophecies in the Old Testament are stern poems from a loving God to his errant children which contain accusations and judgments, but also promises and encouragement – if only the people turn back.
The most successful example of Prophecy I can think of is Jonah at Nineveh. Jonah delivers the prophecy, and the people repent and worship the Lord. Mission Accomplished.
However, unlike Nineveh, when Amos delivers his prophecy, the priest Amaziah, tells him to get lost and go prophecy somewhere else – not exactly the right way to receive God’s Word! Old Testament Prophecy is meant to produce a result – Repentance.
Importantly,the success of the prophecy is not gauged by the result, but upon the faithfulness of the prophet to deliver the message.
Prophecy in the New Testament
In the New Testament prophecy takes on a more varied complexion. Just taking a brief look at the Gospel of Luke gives us several types:
Chapter 1: The Angel Gabriel prophecies to Zechariah about the birth of John the Baptist , who will …” turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
Gabriel also prophecies the birth of Jesus to Mary (1:33,34) “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
When John is born, his father, Zechariah sings the song, sometimes referred to as the “Benedictus”, prophecying over John:
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, *
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give people knowledge of salvation *
by the forgiveness of their sins.
The ancient Simeon also prophecies in song after having seen the baby Jesus. In the song we call Nunc dimittis: (Luke 2:29‑32)
Lord, you now have set your servant free *
to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations, *
and the glory of your people Israel.
Coming to John the Baptist, he really is the embodiment of the Old Testament type of prophet. In fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, he cries out in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, saying
8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. … “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.” … “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Clearly, this is the classic prophetic message: Repent and believe – or else!
Jesus himself can be thought of as a Prophet in this mold, especially when he foretells the destruction of Jerusalem in and his eventual return in Luke 21:
20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 23 Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles…
25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. …
So even in the New Testament there are Old Testament “Thus says the Lord “ types of prophecy. But when we come to the letter 1 Corinthians, we encounter something new. Paul says,
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.”
Suddenly, prophecy is no longer just for the capitol ‘P’ prophet, but it has become a gift to the church and something for us to seek. Paul speaks in the imperative voice. This is a directive, something you should do. Prophecy is for all of God’s people, not just the selected prophet. We as Christians are all God’s prophetic Personnel. (Qui)
Quare - Why?, For what purpose?
1 Cor 14:3: …the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. …the one who prophesies builds up the church. As an unbeliever hears prophecy,”he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.”
So, again we see that the purpose of prophecy is to call people to repentance and worship of God.
Now the Product itself. Another New Testament example of prophecy is in Acts 21:10:
10 While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”
We have seen before that a prophet often receives a vision and then is given a meaning for that vision. Here the prophet acts out the prophecy and then provides the meaning. The actual prophesy then consists of visions or metaphorical actions that give a message of warning or hope to the recipient.
Prophecy may also be addressed to individuals in order to encourage them. It’s not unusual for a prophet to call someone out and then tell what is going on in their lives, and afterwards give a message of encouragement. This is sometimes called ‘reading your mail’. It can be embarrassing in a way, but it’s also amazing when someone who doesn’t know you accurately tells what is going on in your life and then gives you an encouragement to go on – especially when you’re having a tough time. The purpose again is to build up the church.
I’d like to now actually enter into this process briefly. Last week after our service, Cindy told me that while Peter Schoew was giving a Scripture reference and Jim was playing the piano, she had had a vision. She was reticent to share it, but I asked her to write up what she felt the Lord was showing her so that she could share it with us today.
Cindy’s Vision
Last Sunday, after Fr. Peter shared about his gift and the scripture that inspired his “spirit song” then Jim began to play his offertory – God called to my memory the focus of my prayers at the last Friday night Mission Tri-State prayer meeting.
In that prayer meeting with all the lovely incense and quietness God was showing me his spirit moving through the “desolate” parts of our city between Hal Greer and 20th St. As his spirit moved from house to house I would see houses repaired, cleansed, and lights go on and glow warmly from the windows. I watched this happen to many homes until I came to one particular house where the spirit stopped. It was a familiar place that I pass when crossing town. There the young men sit on the porch or saunter on the side walk and street in front of this house. I usually get a little nervous when I pass by here. There the spirit stayed. I could see no repair, cleansing or lighting going on here. God just stopped there – so with some effort, I prayed for the young men.
This one is hard because I don’t like to see young men sitting around on a porch. I think they should be out working. The young men there look bored, listless and possibly dangerous. Sometimes I am scared of these men especially when they walk in the street without looking to see if a car is coming. I found it hard to persevere in prayer for them because I did not want to “see” them. That was the vision at the Friday night prayer meeting…
Now back to the present. Jim was playing the offertory and I was meditating on the scripture passage Fr. Peter had copied for us
“ Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city… We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake , O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” Daniel 9:18 - 19
So the Lord brought me back to the young men on the porch. As Jim played (and Jim I believe you were mediating God’s spirit) -- the Lord began to give me His heart for the young men – tears formed in my eyes and I thought I would openly begin to weep, but I took a deep breath and “regained composure.” But now I began to pray in earnest for the young men on that porch. I saw them as “lost boys” -- lost in every way. The closest some have been to their fathers is the night they were conceived. They’ve not grown up with a father to teach them the way of men, and they don’t know the fatherhood of God. But God was showing me how much he loves them and wants them to be a part of his family. God hasn’t forgotten them and he doesn’t want us to forget them either…
Explication:
To summarize, let’s note the several aspects of what Cindy has shared with us and see how our P’s and Q’s apply.
Personnel is obvious – but just a note on this. Cindy does not consider herself a ‘prophet’ – just someone who got a vision. I think the Lord is developing this gift in her, but she’s a regular person, a Christian just like the rest of us.
The Purpose of her vision seems to be to call attention to God’s heart of compassion towards those we could call Lost Boys and to spur us on to mission.
Finally the Product consists of a
-A Vision
-Sparked during worship service (music gift and scripture teaching in play)
-The propohecy includes the prophest’s initial response, but also
-God’s perspective –his heart, compassion
-In response the prophet weeps and repents, she has a new perspective, and new compassion for the lost.
-Lastly, a Mission orientation is stressed,– we as the Church are admonished to reach out to these “Lost Boys’.
Not many of us used to speaking out such prophecies in church, but I hope that will change in time. We may not be ‘prophets for profit’, or be called to go stand in front of kings or presidents to call out injustice or oppression, but we are all called of God to respond to his leading however it may come. In this case, we are to ‘Seek to prophesy. …’ I hope today’s lesson will help us to mind our P’s and Q’s regarding prophecy and that the Lord will grace us with more of it – for the up-building of our church. May it be so. In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amos 7:7-15
7 This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold, I am setting a plumb linein the midst of my people Israel;I will never again pass by them;9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,
“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,and Israel must go into exileaway from his land.’”
12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
Introduction
When we were homeschooling our daughter Lindsey, we bought a Latin language program for her. Initially, I tried to help her out with her vocabulary words, and I noticed that our basic question words in English: Who What Why, When… seemed to all have Latin counterparts that start with Q. Now I’m no Latin scholar, but I’d like to use a little device today from Latin to help us explore the subject of Prophecy – Old Testament and New.
The basis for this message is our reading from Amos today (7:7-15) in which Amos sees a vision of the plumb line and talks briefly about his role as a prophet. With apologies to the Latin scholars in our midst, I would like for us to consider some Prophetic P’s and Q’s. Namely:
The Personnel of Prophecy or Qui (Who?)
The Purpose of Prophecy – or Quare (Why?)
The Product of Prophecy: Quod (What?)
But first the setting for our passage from Amos:
Personnel (Qui): Amos, a shepherd from the Tekoa who is also a dresser of Sycamore fig trees. He is not a ‘professional’ ‘prophet for profit’ but an ‘amateur’, not a “prophet or the son of a prophet” but someone God called out for a special purpose –
Purpose (Quare): to speak to the northern tribes of Israel about their injustice and unfaithfulness and to warn them about the judgment to come:
Product (Quod): The product that Amos produces is a Prophecy from God, the ‘Word of the Lord”, ‘oracles’ of impending judgment that begin with “Thus says the Lord”, or “Hear this word”. These oracles descry cruelty and oppression by Israel’s neighbors, but also contain accusations and warnings against Israel itself.
In this prophecy there are also Visions with explanations. Our reading today from Amos chapter 7 contains the vision of the plumbline. Earlier in the same chapter are pictures of Locusts coming to eat up the crops and fire devouring the land. The prophetic word comes with metaphorical visions of what the Lord is doing or will do.
It’s also significant to note that Amos uses many different literary techniques. The introduction to Amos from the ESV online says… …”the dominant literary form is satire, with the usual elements of objects of attack, a satiric vehicle …, a satiric norm or standard by which the criticism is conducted, and a prevailing satiric tone… In addition… Amos is a master of smaller forms such as metaphor and simile, epithet (“you cows of Bashan,” 4:1), parallelism, rhetorical questions, and parody … Other genres that find a place in the book include saying or proverb, doom song, woe formula, and visionary writing."
So Prophecy in the Old Testament is a literary product, an art form replete with the techniques of artistry, that stands on its own as Art. All of this is an attempt to get the people’s attention, to call them to repentance and have them return to the Lord before it’s too late and doom comes upon them. Prophecy is ultimately rooted in God’s love and concern for his people. Prophecies in the Old Testament are stern poems from a loving God to his errant children which contain accusations and judgments, but also promises and encouragement – if only the people turn back.
The most successful example of Prophecy I can think of is Jonah at Nineveh. Jonah delivers the prophecy, and the people repent and worship the Lord. Mission Accomplished.
However, unlike Nineveh, when Amos delivers his prophecy, the priest Amaziah, tells him to get lost and go prophecy somewhere else – not exactly the right way to receive God’s Word! Old Testament Prophecy is meant to produce a result – Repentance.
Importantly,the success of the prophecy is not gauged by the result, but upon the faithfulness of the prophet to deliver the message.
Prophecy in the New Testament
In the New Testament prophecy takes on a more varied complexion. Just taking a brief look at the Gospel of Luke gives us several types:
Chapter 1: The Angel Gabriel prophecies to Zechariah about the birth of John the Baptist , who will …” turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
Gabriel also prophecies the birth of Jesus to Mary (1:33,34) “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
When John is born, his father, Zechariah sings the song, sometimes referred to as the “Benedictus”, prophecying over John:
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, *
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give people knowledge of salvation *
by the forgiveness of their sins.
The ancient Simeon also prophecies in song after having seen the baby Jesus. In the song we call Nunc dimittis: (Luke 2:29‑32)
Lord, you now have set your servant free *
to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations, *
and the glory of your people Israel.
Coming to John the Baptist, he really is the embodiment of the Old Testament type of prophet. In fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, he cries out in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, saying
8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. … “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.” … “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Clearly, this is the classic prophetic message: Repent and believe – or else!
Jesus himself can be thought of as a Prophet in this mold, especially when he foretells the destruction of Jerusalem in and his eventual return in Luke 21:
20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. 23 Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles…
25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. …
So even in the New Testament there are Old Testament “Thus says the Lord “ types of prophecy. But when we come to the letter 1 Corinthians, we encounter something new. Paul says,
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.”
Suddenly, prophecy is no longer just for the capitol ‘P’ prophet, but it has become a gift to the church and something for us to seek. Paul speaks in the imperative voice. This is a directive, something you should do. Prophecy is for all of God’s people, not just the selected prophet. We as Christians are all God’s prophetic Personnel. (Qui)
Quare - Why?, For what purpose?
1 Cor 14:3: …the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. …the one who prophesies builds up the church. As an unbeliever hears prophecy,”he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.”
So, again we see that the purpose of prophecy is to call people to repentance and worship of God.
Now the Product itself. Another New Testament example of prophecy is in Acts 21:10:
10 While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”
We have seen before that a prophet often receives a vision and then is given a meaning for that vision. Here the prophet acts out the prophecy and then provides the meaning. The actual prophesy then consists of visions or metaphorical actions that give a message of warning or hope to the recipient.
Prophecy may also be addressed to individuals in order to encourage them. It’s not unusual for a prophet to call someone out and then tell what is going on in their lives, and afterwards give a message of encouragement. This is sometimes called ‘reading your mail’. It can be embarrassing in a way, but it’s also amazing when someone who doesn’t know you accurately tells what is going on in your life and then gives you an encouragement to go on – especially when you’re having a tough time. The purpose again is to build up the church.
I’d like to now actually enter into this process briefly. Last week after our service, Cindy told me that while Peter Schoew was giving a Scripture reference and Jim was playing the piano, she had had a vision. She was reticent to share it, but I asked her to write up what she felt the Lord was showing her so that she could share it with us today.
Cindy’s Vision
Last Sunday, after Fr. Peter shared about his gift and the scripture that inspired his “spirit song” then Jim began to play his offertory – God called to my memory the focus of my prayers at the last Friday night Mission Tri-State prayer meeting.
In that prayer meeting with all the lovely incense and quietness God was showing me his spirit moving through the “desolate” parts of our city between Hal Greer and 20th St. As his spirit moved from house to house I would see houses repaired, cleansed, and lights go on and glow warmly from the windows. I watched this happen to many homes until I came to one particular house where the spirit stopped. It was a familiar place that I pass when crossing town. There the young men sit on the porch or saunter on the side walk and street in front of this house. I usually get a little nervous when I pass by here. There the spirit stayed. I could see no repair, cleansing or lighting going on here. God just stopped there – so with some effort, I prayed for the young men.
This one is hard because I don’t like to see young men sitting around on a porch. I think they should be out working. The young men there look bored, listless and possibly dangerous. Sometimes I am scared of these men especially when they walk in the street without looking to see if a car is coming. I found it hard to persevere in prayer for them because I did not want to “see” them. That was the vision at the Friday night prayer meeting…
Now back to the present. Jim was playing the offertory and I was meditating on the scripture passage Fr. Peter had copied for us
“ Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city… We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake , O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” Daniel 9:18 - 19
So the Lord brought me back to the young men on the porch. As Jim played (and Jim I believe you were mediating God’s spirit) -- the Lord began to give me His heart for the young men – tears formed in my eyes and I thought I would openly begin to weep, but I took a deep breath and “regained composure.” But now I began to pray in earnest for the young men on that porch. I saw them as “lost boys” -- lost in every way. The closest some have been to their fathers is the night they were conceived. They’ve not grown up with a father to teach them the way of men, and they don’t know the fatherhood of God. But God was showing me how much he loves them and wants them to be a part of his family. God hasn’t forgotten them and he doesn’t want us to forget them either…
Explication:
To summarize, let’s note the several aspects of what Cindy has shared with us and see how our P’s and Q’s apply.
Personnel is obvious – but just a note on this. Cindy does not consider herself a ‘prophet’ – just someone who got a vision. I think the Lord is developing this gift in her, but she’s a regular person, a Christian just like the rest of us.
The Purpose of her vision seems to be to call attention to God’s heart of compassion towards those we could call Lost Boys and to spur us on to mission.
Finally the Product consists of a
-A Vision
-Sparked during worship service (music gift and scripture teaching in play)
-The propohecy includes the prophest’s initial response, but also
-God’s perspective –his heart, compassion
-In response the prophet weeps and repents, she has a new perspective, and new compassion for the lost.
-Lastly, a Mission orientation is stressed,– we as the Church are admonished to reach out to these “Lost Boys’.
Not many of us used to speaking out such prophecies in church, but I hope that will change in time. We may not be ‘prophets for profit’, or be called to go stand in front of kings or presidents to call out injustice or oppression, but we are all called of God to respond to his leading however it may come. In this case, we are to ‘Seek to prophesy. …’ I hope today’s lesson will help us to mind our P’s and Q’s regarding prophecy and that the Lord will grace us with more of it – for the up-building of our church. May it be so. In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Becoming a 'Generosity-Driven Church
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on June 28, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, WV, and based on 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, Deuteronomy 15: 7-11 and Psalm 112.
8:1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you —see that you excel in this act of grace also.
8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. 11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.” (ESV)
Today, I’d like for us to consider something I think would please the Lord greatly: becoming a “Generosity – Driven” Church. Here are three B’s around which we may organize our thoughts:
The Basis for Generosity
The Barriers to Generosity
The Benefits of Generosity
But first a story:
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove tells about a church he knew that “decided to launch a building campaign. They were a healthy church with a good pastor, and new members kept coming every month. It was a rural congregation whose size was somewhat limited by the community that surrounded it. If every living soul for five miles around found Jesus, they could probably have still fit in their building. But some folks in the congregation had heard about church growth and started thinking that they needed to build a larger sanctuary along with new classrooms and ‘multi-purpose’ space. So they launched a building campaign.
Through the denomination they hired a fundraising expert who organized an ambitious effort, seeking to raise millions of dollars. But after the church had been at it a number of years and reached only about half of the goal, they decided to end the campaign. Some people felt like it was a failure. They didn’t have enough money to build their big new building. But since they could still fit in the old one, they looked around and asked what else they might use the money for.
It turned out that one family that had come to the church during this time of growth didn’t have much money. The father was disabled, and they struggled to make ends meet. But the church was genuinely glad to have them and really enjoyed the gifts they brought to the community. So the church decided to use some of the money from the campaign fund to build that family a house.”
I think the pastor’s name was Ty Pennington…
But seriously folks…Hartgrove goes on to allow as how there is nothing wrong with building meeting spaces when a church needs it, but he concludes that “a generosity-driven church that builds houses for the poor will never have to worry about church growth. A church that pours itself out as Christ gave himself for the church will always be budding with new life. (“New Monasticism”: pgs. 104-105)
With that example in mind, let’ look at our first ‘B”: The Basis for Generosity
Verse 9 of 2 Cor. 8: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
Phillipians 2:3-8 expands upon this idea in this way: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
The Basis for Generosity is first and foremost God’s generosity in sending Jesus Christ to empty himself out of all his divine prerogatives, take on human flesh and live and die for sinners such as us – while we were still sinners! (Romans 5:6). Now that’s Generosity!
By way of contrast, let’s go on to consider what Generosity is NOT based upon:
1) Generosity is not based on what you have – on wealth or riches.
In our passage from Second Corinthians 8: 1-3, Paul tells of the
…”grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify - and beyond their means…”
The context for this remark was that in the years 45-47 AD, there was a general famine in the Mediterranean world, but especially in Syria. Crops failed and as a result it was almost impossible to find bread in Jerusalem. The people were starving – and money didn’t help because coins couldn’t scare up grain. So Paul spent a considerable amount of time – maybe up to a couple of years – trying to collect food for those in Jerusalem. This was a formidable task because he had to actually collect the food itself and transport it over hundreds of miles.
Now the Macedonian church was going through a ‘severe test of affliction’ itself. The people were extremely poor. Not just poor, extremely poor. Their giving went beyond their means and became an overflowing wealth of generosity. 2 Cor. 8:12: “For if the readiness [to give] is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.”
Generosity is NOT based on our means.
2) It follows logically that Generosity is not based on having a great financial plan for the future. The Macedonians didn’t evaluate their portfolios and then decided how much they could give based on their projected rate of return, market conditions, etc. Their giving was based on a heart of compassion that sought to help others even more pressed than them. This was an ‘act of grace” (v.7). They were determined to give even though they could not see provision up ahead. Therefore, their basis of giving must have been confidence in God and His ability to provide rather than what they could see or plan. This doesn’t preclude planning, but –
Generosity is NOT based on having a great financial plan.
3) Finally, true Generosity is not based on compulsion. The Macedonians begged earnestly for the favor of contributing to the needs of the saints in Jerusalem of their own accord (v. 3). This was not by way of command (v.8), but voluntary giving - the same as that shown by the saints in Jerusalem in the very early days of the church, when the saints were “selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2:45).
Contrast this with State taxation. Government programs to help the poor cannot truly be said to be Generous because they are based on the coercive power of the State to extract your money whether you want to give or not. Rather, Paul sees this as a matter of fairness:
13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”
True Generosity is Not compulsory.
To summarize our first 'B' then: the Basis for Generosity is Christ’s example of self-giving, thankfulness for what God has done, Confidence in God as Provider, Compassion for others, and a desire to participate in what God is doing.
Now let’s look at some Barriers to Generosity
Our reading from Deut. 15:7-11 says : “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, [Jubilee] the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Need is say more? The first barrier to Generosity is Hardness of Heart.
Closely akin to this is Greed. I can’t give because I want stuff, status, or prestige.
This past week I talked to a woman whose heart desire was to stay at home with her kids. Her husband, however, insisted that she go to work full time, even though he himself was making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Worse – when she protested and asked what it was they needed her income for – he couldn’t even say. He wanted money for the sake of prestige and status – not even to buy toys. Greed like this is excessively wicked and God will judge it severely.
Next on our list of barriers is Fear
“What if the economy goes bad?” “What if …Wait a minute! The economy IS bad! What if it gets worse? What if we can’t pay our bills?! What if, What if, What if the sky falls in?! Somehow, I just don’t think this argument would hold much weight with the Macedonians. You see, generosity is based in confidence in God as Provider, no matter what the circumstances. Fear is never a legitimate reason not to give in God’s economy.
Then there is perhaps a more subtle barrier: the challenge to give wisely. It’s possible to give badly – with strings or expectations attached. In Spencer, where my mother and my sister live, there are two Methodist churches within a block of one another. One church has a large endowment which is earmarked for the maintenance and upkeep of the building. The problem is that the money can’t be used for anything else. So the membership keeps dwindling and they can’t pay their monthly bills or fund Outreach ministry– but they have a well-kept building!
Gifts of money can create unhealthy relationships or circumstances. Throwing money at problems can create other problems in its wake. It takes true discernment to give wisely.
So the need to give wisely is a potential barrier to true Generosity – but it’s no excuse. We are still expected to be Generous.
But enough with barriers and problems; on to the Benefits of Generosity
Psalm 112, beginning in verse 5:
5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;who conducts his affairs with justice.6 For the righteous will never be moved;he will be remembered forever.7 He is not afraid of bad news;his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.8 His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
9 He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;his righteousness endures forever;his horn is exalted in honor.
The Generous person will be blessed with
Stability
A Righteous Legacy
Confidence
Triumph over enemies
Power
Verses 1-3 of Psalm 112 also add the following benefits:
Great Offspring
Wealth
Riches
Righteousness
Let’s look at these verses now:
“1 Praise the Lord!Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,who greatly delights in his commandments!2 His offspring will be mighty in the land;the generation of the upright will be blessed.3 Wealth and riches are in his house,and his righteousness endures forever.”
Note the exuberance of the Psalmist’s praise. In 2 Cor 8: 2, we find a wonderful phrase to describe this: “Abundance of Joy”.
An excellent benefit of Generosity is Abundance of Joy.
This week, I have watched this Generosity in action as we have had a crew from the World Changers working at Hope House. In talking to the crew members, we learned from one joyful woman, Pam, that this was her 10th World Changers trip in as many years!
Another lady on the crew, Ginger, told us how her church of some 300 people sent 60 of its members to work in Huntington this week! And 11 of them were from her own immediate and extended family! This is extravagant Generosity. And its reward is Joy.
Friday night we went to the World Changers wrap-up dinner and Worship Service at Huntington High School. Believe me, there was lots of enthusiasm and joy in the crowd as they worshipped the Lord and told of experiences they had had during the week.
This kind of giving also leads to Growth in Faith. Generosity opens up opportunities to see God work in ways that we could never imagine. Generosity increases Faith.
It also produces a Good Testimony in the world.
On Monday, I met a young man named Marcel, who lives with his girlfriend, Letitia, three doors down from Hope House. Marcel starts his days by sitting out on the front stoop and drinking beer from a bottle in a paper bag. Over the course of five days, I talked with Marcel numerous times and even had the opportunity to invite him into Hope House at one point. He looked around and after the tour, he told me in slurred speech, “You guys sure are doin’ a great thing here. After you get this done, we should have a party – a good one, not a bad one, you know. We’ll get together and celebrate. …”
Because we as a congregation have been generous in the Fairfield community, we have a good reputation with nonbelievers. Over the course of time, I fully expect that some, if not many, will come to know Christ – largely because we have sown into the life of the community generously thus creating a Good Testimony.
So to return to our challenge or call – It pleases God for us to become a Generosity – Driven Church.
I do believe that we are generous already. When you look at the numbers on our financial report every month, I think you would have to agree that we are generous. But I think we have room to grow in this.
Robert Shnase, in his book, “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations” says that ‘Extravagantly Generous congregations emphasize mission, purpose, and life-changing results rather than shortages, budgets and institutional loyalty”. …”They emphasize the Christian’s need to give more than the church’s need for money. They teach, preach, and practice proportional giving with the goal of tithing. …They speak of joy, devotion, honoring God, and the steady growth of spirit that leads to greater [and greater] generosity.” (pg 119).
I think that sounds like an exciting way to approach giving – and I hope you do too.
So how shall we proceed? How do we become “Generosity-Driven”?
Start with the Tithe. If you’re not tithing already, make a plan to become a tither. This is the one area where God specifically invites us to test him: Malachi 3:10-12: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.”
Put God to the test and see if He will not provide for you as you give generously. Plan to increase your giving one per cent per year until you have reached the Tithe – and see if the Lord does not provide for your every need.
Our commitment to AMIA is that we participate in the 10-10-10 plan. We all tithe to the church. The Church tithes to AMIA, and AMIA sends a tithe to Rwanda, granting 50% of its monies back to local ministries. This is where our $9500 grant for the HVAC system at Hope House came from. We benefited from others’ generosity and we in turn we must be a blessing to others.
But even beyond ‘paying our dues’ to AMIA, as a congregation, let’s begin to think about this notion of Extravagant Giving. What would the Lord have us to do that we would become more and more known as a Generosity-Driven Church? Let’s commit to praying about it and ‘put God to the Test” and see if He does not open the windows of heaven – even to the point where we have to say “Enough, Lord, stay your hand.”
Let’s become Macedonians, characterized by Abundance of Joy who give ‘beyond our means because we know that God’s means can never be exhausted. Amen? Amen.
8:1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you —see that you excel in this act of grace also.
8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. 11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.” (ESV)
Today, I’d like for us to consider something I think would please the Lord greatly: becoming a “Generosity – Driven” Church. Here are three B’s around which we may organize our thoughts:
The Basis for Generosity
The Barriers to Generosity
The Benefits of Generosity
But first a story:
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove tells about a church he knew that “decided to launch a building campaign. They were a healthy church with a good pastor, and new members kept coming every month. It was a rural congregation whose size was somewhat limited by the community that surrounded it. If every living soul for five miles around found Jesus, they could probably have still fit in their building. But some folks in the congregation had heard about church growth and started thinking that they needed to build a larger sanctuary along with new classrooms and ‘multi-purpose’ space. So they launched a building campaign.
Through the denomination they hired a fundraising expert who organized an ambitious effort, seeking to raise millions of dollars. But after the church had been at it a number of years and reached only about half of the goal, they decided to end the campaign. Some people felt like it was a failure. They didn’t have enough money to build their big new building. But since they could still fit in the old one, they looked around and asked what else they might use the money for.
It turned out that one family that had come to the church during this time of growth didn’t have much money. The father was disabled, and they struggled to make ends meet. But the church was genuinely glad to have them and really enjoyed the gifts they brought to the community. So the church decided to use some of the money from the campaign fund to build that family a house.”
I think the pastor’s name was Ty Pennington…
But seriously folks…Hartgrove goes on to allow as how there is nothing wrong with building meeting spaces when a church needs it, but he concludes that “a generosity-driven church that builds houses for the poor will never have to worry about church growth. A church that pours itself out as Christ gave himself for the church will always be budding with new life. (“New Monasticism”: pgs. 104-105)
With that example in mind, let’ look at our first ‘B”: The Basis for Generosity
Verse 9 of 2 Cor. 8: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
Phillipians 2:3-8 expands upon this idea in this way: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
The Basis for Generosity is first and foremost God’s generosity in sending Jesus Christ to empty himself out of all his divine prerogatives, take on human flesh and live and die for sinners such as us – while we were still sinners! (Romans 5:6). Now that’s Generosity!
By way of contrast, let’s go on to consider what Generosity is NOT based upon:
1) Generosity is not based on what you have – on wealth or riches.
In our passage from Second Corinthians 8: 1-3, Paul tells of the
…”grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify - and beyond their means…”
The context for this remark was that in the years 45-47 AD, there was a general famine in the Mediterranean world, but especially in Syria. Crops failed and as a result it was almost impossible to find bread in Jerusalem. The people were starving – and money didn’t help because coins couldn’t scare up grain. So Paul spent a considerable amount of time – maybe up to a couple of years – trying to collect food for those in Jerusalem. This was a formidable task because he had to actually collect the food itself and transport it over hundreds of miles.
Now the Macedonian church was going through a ‘severe test of affliction’ itself. The people were extremely poor. Not just poor, extremely poor. Their giving went beyond their means and became an overflowing wealth of generosity. 2 Cor. 8:12: “For if the readiness [to give] is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.”
Generosity is NOT based on our means.
2) It follows logically that Generosity is not based on having a great financial plan for the future. The Macedonians didn’t evaluate their portfolios and then decided how much they could give based on their projected rate of return, market conditions, etc. Their giving was based on a heart of compassion that sought to help others even more pressed than them. This was an ‘act of grace” (v.7). They were determined to give even though they could not see provision up ahead. Therefore, their basis of giving must have been confidence in God and His ability to provide rather than what they could see or plan. This doesn’t preclude planning, but –
Generosity is NOT based on having a great financial plan.
3) Finally, true Generosity is not based on compulsion. The Macedonians begged earnestly for the favor of contributing to the needs of the saints in Jerusalem of their own accord (v. 3). This was not by way of command (v.8), but voluntary giving - the same as that shown by the saints in Jerusalem in the very early days of the church, when the saints were “selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2:45).
Contrast this with State taxation. Government programs to help the poor cannot truly be said to be Generous because they are based on the coercive power of the State to extract your money whether you want to give or not. Rather, Paul sees this as a matter of fairness:
13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”
True Generosity is Not compulsory.
To summarize our first 'B' then: the Basis for Generosity is Christ’s example of self-giving, thankfulness for what God has done, Confidence in God as Provider, Compassion for others, and a desire to participate in what God is doing.
Now let’s look at some Barriers to Generosity
Our reading from Deut. 15:7-11 says : “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, [Jubilee] the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Need is say more? The first barrier to Generosity is Hardness of Heart.
Closely akin to this is Greed. I can’t give because I want stuff, status, or prestige.
This past week I talked to a woman whose heart desire was to stay at home with her kids. Her husband, however, insisted that she go to work full time, even though he himself was making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Worse – when she protested and asked what it was they needed her income for – he couldn’t even say. He wanted money for the sake of prestige and status – not even to buy toys. Greed like this is excessively wicked and God will judge it severely.
Next on our list of barriers is Fear
“What if the economy goes bad?” “What if …Wait a minute! The economy IS bad! What if it gets worse? What if we can’t pay our bills?! What if, What if, What if the sky falls in?! Somehow, I just don’t think this argument would hold much weight with the Macedonians. You see, generosity is based in confidence in God as Provider, no matter what the circumstances. Fear is never a legitimate reason not to give in God’s economy.
Then there is perhaps a more subtle barrier: the challenge to give wisely. It’s possible to give badly – with strings or expectations attached. In Spencer, where my mother and my sister live, there are two Methodist churches within a block of one another. One church has a large endowment which is earmarked for the maintenance and upkeep of the building. The problem is that the money can’t be used for anything else. So the membership keeps dwindling and they can’t pay their monthly bills or fund Outreach ministry– but they have a well-kept building!
Gifts of money can create unhealthy relationships or circumstances. Throwing money at problems can create other problems in its wake. It takes true discernment to give wisely.
So the need to give wisely is a potential barrier to true Generosity – but it’s no excuse. We are still expected to be Generous.
But enough with barriers and problems; on to the Benefits of Generosity
Psalm 112, beginning in verse 5:
5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;who conducts his affairs with justice.6 For the righteous will never be moved;he will be remembered forever.7 He is not afraid of bad news;his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.8 His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
9 He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;his righteousness endures forever;his horn is exalted in honor.
The Generous person will be blessed with
Stability
A Righteous Legacy
Confidence
Triumph over enemies
Power
Verses 1-3 of Psalm 112 also add the following benefits:
Great Offspring
Wealth
Riches
Righteousness
Let’s look at these verses now:
“1 Praise the Lord!Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,who greatly delights in his commandments!2 His offspring will be mighty in the land;the generation of the upright will be blessed.3 Wealth and riches are in his house,and his righteousness endures forever.”
Note the exuberance of the Psalmist’s praise. In 2 Cor 8: 2, we find a wonderful phrase to describe this: “Abundance of Joy”.
An excellent benefit of Generosity is Abundance of Joy.
This week, I have watched this Generosity in action as we have had a crew from the World Changers working at Hope House. In talking to the crew members, we learned from one joyful woman, Pam, that this was her 10th World Changers trip in as many years!
Another lady on the crew, Ginger, told us how her church of some 300 people sent 60 of its members to work in Huntington this week! And 11 of them were from her own immediate and extended family! This is extravagant Generosity. And its reward is Joy.
Friday night we went to the World Changers wrap-up dinner and Worship Service at Huntington High School. Believe me, there was lots of enthusiasm and joy in the crowd as they worshipped the Lord and told of experiences they had had during the week.
This kind of giving also leads to Growth in Faith. Generosity opens up opportunities to see God work in ways that we could never imagine. Generosity increases Faith.
It also produces a Good Testimony in the world.
On Monday, I met a young man named Marcel, who lives with his girlfriend, Letitia, three doors down from Hope House. Marcel starts his days by sitting out on the front stoop and drinking beer from a bottle in a paper bag. Over the course of five days, I talked with Marcel numerous times and even had the opportunity to invite him into Hope House at one point. He looked around and after the tour, he told me in slurred speech, “You guys sure are doin’ a great thing here. After you get this done, we should have a party – a good one, not a bad one, you know. We’ll get together and celebrate. …”
Because we as a congregation have been generous in the Fairfield community, we have a good reputation with nonbelievers. Over the course of time, I fully expect that some, if not many, will come to know Christ – largely because we have sown into the life of the community generously thus creating a Good Testimony.
So to return to our challenge or call – It pleases God for us to become a Generosity – Driven Church.
I do believe that we are generous already. When you look at the numbers on our financial report every month, I think you would have to agree that we are generous. But I think we have room to grow in this.
Robert Shnase, in his book, “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations” says that ‘Extravagantly Generous congregations emphasize mission, purpose, and life-changing results rather than shortages, budgets and institutional loyalty”. …”They emphasize the Christian’s need to give more than the church’s need for money. They teach, preach, and practice proportional giving with the goal of tithing. …They speak of joy, devotion, honoring God, and the steady growth of spirit that leads to greater [and greater] generosity.” (pg 119).
I think that sounds like an exciting way to approach giving – and I hope you do too.
So how shall we proceed? How do we become “Generosity-Driven”?
Start with the Tithe. If you’re not tithing already, make a plan to become a tither. This is the one area where God specifically invites us to test him: Malachi 3:10-12: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.”
Put God to the test and see if He will not provide for you as you give generously. Plan to increase your giving one per cent per year until you have reached the Tithe – and see if the Lord does not provide for your every need.
Our commitment to AMIA is that we participate in the 10-10-10 plan. We all tithe to the church. The Church tithes to AMIA, and AMIA sends a tithe to Rwanda, granting 50% of its monies back to local ministries. This is where our $9500 grant for the HVAC system at Hope House came from. We benefited from others’ generosity and we in turn we must be a blessing to others.
But even beyond ‘paying our dues’ to AMIA, as a congregation, let’s begin to think about this notion of Extravagant Giving. What would the Lord have us to do that we would become more and more known as a Generosity-Driven Church? Let’s commit to praying about it and ‘put God to the Test” and see if He does not open the windows of heaven – even to the point where we have to say “Enough, Lord, stay your hand.”
Let’s become Macedonians, characterized by Abundance of Joy who give ‘beyond our means because we know that God’s means can never be exhausted. Amen? Amen.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Death is Swallowed up in Life
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on June 14, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV and based on II Corinthians 5:1-10.
Recently I spoke with a woman who had lost her daughter in a sudden, tragic accident. She was beside herself with grief, totally preoccupied with thoughts about what she might have or could have done to prevent the death - even though she was no where near her daughter when the accident occurred. She was in shock, unable to grasp the reality that her daughter was gone. And she was also afraid because while she was basically sure of her daughter’s character and knew that she had made a personal confession of faith, the young woman hadn’t gone to church very regularly. In addition, there were a couple of other things that caused the mother worry that her daughter might not make it to heaven because of gaps in her Christian ‘resume’. She was distraught over the destruction over her daughter’s ‘earthly house’ and fearful over the status of her ‘heavenly dwelling” as Paul might have phrased it.
In the midst of her confused feelings, she was actually right to be concerned. As we read in our passage from 2 Corinthians, we are creatures of two dwellings: 1) the earthly tent, our physical body, and 2) our heavenly dwelling, a building made by God, our resurrection body( I Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 21:1-22:5) The first is flimsy, subject to corruption and death. The second is eternal, solid, a “building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
In the earthly tent we are conscious that there is more to be had, and so we groan and long for the day when we are ‘further clothed’ with the heavenly existence so that we may not be found naked – a likely reference to the so-called intermediate state between death and the believer’s resurrection in which we live as disembodied spirits while we await resurrection. We groan for the mortal to be “swallowed up by life”. Yet we are also very much this-world centered and it’s really difficult at times to imagine what it would be like to be ‘absent from the body and present with the Lord’. Nevertheless, for thousands of years, Christians have thought of themselves as ‘Pilgrims’(Hebrews 11:13), strangers or exiles on a journey through this life, whose citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
Joan Chittister has a wonderful description of this kind of pilgrim mentality. She describes pilgrim people as those who have a ‘Barefooted Soul’, who walk through this life awake, alert, Grateful, and only partially at home.
The folk song “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” also comes to mind. The plaintive lyrics speak of passing through a world of trouble on the way to see one’s parents and find a place of release from suffering.
I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
But there's no sickness, toil or danger
In that brith world to which I go.
I'm going threre to see my father
I'm going there no more to roam
I"m just a goin' over Jordan
I'm just a goin' over home.
Now, I grant you that the thinking expressed in this song is almost entirely negative. Life is hard, full of trials, deprecations and self-denial. There is a palpable sense of longing to be released from the struggle. I’m guessing that most of us don’t see life that way. Our culture has created such material comforts for us that our basic outlook about life is that it is Good. If we have trouble along the way, this is an aberration. In our culture, people write books about ‘why bad things happen to good people’, and spend hours debating why God allows evil things to happen in the world. If we fail, we expect someone to bail us out. We just can’t allow life to be Hard.
But as we can see – and feel – through the Wayfaring Stranger song, there is another more somber way of approaching life – one that understands that life is basically difficult and hard – and that suffering in this life is no surprise. This approach does not shake the fist at God, wondering why He allows hardship. Rather it looks forward to going ‘over Jordan’ and being released from suffering and death.
Now you might say, “That seems like an awfully negative way to view life – especially in view of all the good things there are to enjoy in life.” And you’re right. You and I live lives that the kings and nobility of the past couldn’t even imagine. We have so much material comfort that we often can’t relate to an outlook that sees life as hard or full of toil – something to be released from – a world we are traveling through on the way to somewhere else.
As Christians, I think we have a basic conflict within ourselves. How do we live here in this world, while we are traveling to another world? How do we take care of, and work for real change in this world, when ‘it’s all going to burn’ someday? Isn’t it all just futile?
And the answer is, “No, it’s not futile.” And that’s because there is a connection between this life and the next. What we do here really matters. The Kingdom of God is in our midst and God really does care for this world. Our eventual destination is not just “Heaven”, but Heaven on Earth – a New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven in which we live in resurrection bodies just the same as Jesus has (Rev. 212:2). This current world will eventually be recreated, but it has also been ‘invaded’ by God, and His Kingdom exists here and now.
Author Gustave Aulen refers to this as the “eschatological present” – life that happens between the first coming of Christ and his eventual return, life that sees the future in the now, and calls things that are not as if they already are (Romans 4:17) - life lived as a ‘caretaking Pilgrim’ if you will – someone who’s just passing through, but makes the world better as he goes.
So, that’s all pretty abstract. How does it relate to my daily life?
I’d like to suggest four directions for us out of this passage:
1) Have Faith
2) Please God
3) Remember Judgment
4) Expect a Crown
Let’s take them one by one and consider some ways we might apply these points.
Have Faith.
Paul tells us that we ‘walk by faith, not sight’ (v.7). Hebrews 11:1 says that … “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. Faith is Certainty in another reality that causes us to do things that don’t make sense to the world – such as spending your whole life building an ark when there’s not a rain cloud in sight, or refusing to bow down to an Emperor and dying because of it.
The important thing to remember about faith is that we don’t just endorse a set of ideas, or place our confidence in our faith itself, but that we Know Someone personally. As a result of this personal knowledge of Jesus Christ, we do certain things.
We don’t just passively possess faith, we actively exercise it. We are told to be courageous in the face of difficulties, to act and to be comforted and built up by the deposit of the Holy Spirit within us. We must believe God when he tells us that this world is not our ultimate home and that if we leave this body, we will be with Him. We are to have or exercise Faith.
Please God
Next, we are to Please God. What is it that pleases Him?
James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” In other words, care for those who cannot care for themselves and live a pure lifestyle. Micah 6:8 says it this way: “He has shown thee O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee, but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.”
We are to be just and merciful in our dealings with others – to treat everyone as if they were Jesus – and to be humble in our relationship with God. That means that we seek him through an attitude of listening prayer and ‘do whatever he tells us’ (John 2:5) – even if it seems contrary to what we think we want. After all, just think about the number of times your own parents wanted you to do something that you didn’t like, but which later turned out to be good for you. Those who serve the Lord in humility please him. Those who pursue their own way do not.
Remember Judgment
We must all appear before the judgment seat, or ‘bēma’ (Grk) of Christ. The bema was the tribunal bench in the Roman courtroom, where the governor sat while delivering his judgments. If you were to go to the Corinthian forum today, you could actually see the remains of such a bēma, which still exist. Like a Roman judge, Christ sits on the seat of Judgement,and when we die we stand before Him “so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (v. 10). Everything we do matters. Every act has consequences for good or ill – and we are responsible to Christ for all of it.
It is important to remember however, that believers face a different sort of judgement than non-believers. When the Christian is judged, he pleads the blood of Christ as His righteousness; he comes before Christ as a brother, already accepted by virtue of the finished work of Christ on the cross. The Christian’s works may be found to be ‘wood, hay, stubble, or precious jewels, gold and silver (1 Cor. 3:12-15). Our reward depends upon how faithfully we have built upon the foundation of Christ. Works that glorify our Lord receive a reward; works built on self are burned up as if going through a fire (v. 15). The believer is saved, but his works may perish.
Expect a Crown
Revelation 4:10 describes how the saints cast their crowns before the Lord. Here are five different types of crowns that that we might receive based on our works:
(1) The Crown of Righteousness
2 Tim. 4:8: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. This crown is for those who are living "soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Tit. 2:12).
(2) The Incorruptible Crown or "Victor's Crown"
1 Cor. 9:25: And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”
(3) The Crown of Rejoicing or "Soul Winner's Crown"
1 Thess. 2:19, 20: For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.
Phil. 4:1: Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
(4) The Crown of Life or "Martyr's Crown" (Js. 1:12; Rev. 2:10).
For those who suffer and give their lives for the gospel:
James 1:12: 12: Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Revelation 2:10: 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
(5) The Crown of Glory or "Pastor's Crown" (1 Pet. 5:2-4).
There’s even a crown for pastors, or ‘under-shpeherds’:
1 Peter 5:2-4: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. …So – expect a crown.
Again, the four directives are:
Have Faith
Please God
Remember Judgment
Expect a Crown
In wrapping up, I’d like to go back to the grieving mother I mentioned at the beginning. During a time of healing prayer the Lord showed her a picture of her daughter walking off with Jesus, and then turning back towards her mother and smiling. In this very brief visual image, she apprehended the essential truth that her daughter had left her earthly tent and was headed off with Jesus towards her heavenly dwelling. At that point, the mother was able to let go of her confused struggle and find peace by letting go and allowing her daughter to be cared for by Jesus.
Each one of us is headed for our heavenly dwelling as well. May God grant us the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit as we live with one foot in each world, awaiting his Glorious coming, and groaning to be clothed with Resurrection Life. AMEN.
Recently I spoke with a woman who had lost her daughter in a sudden, tragic accident. She was beside herself with grief, totally preoccupied with thoughts about what she might have or could have done to prevent the death - even though she was no where near her daughter when the accident occurred. She was in shock, unable to grasp the reality that her daughter was gone. And she was also afraid because while she was basically sure of her daughter’s character and knew that she had made a personal confession of faith, the young woman hadn’t gone to church very regularly. In addition, there were a couple of other things that caused the mother worry that her daughter might not make it to heaven because of gaps in her Christian ‘resume’. She was distraught over the destruction over her daughter’s ‘earthly house’ and fearful over the status of her ‘heavenly dwelling” as Paul might have phrased it.
In the midst of her confused feelings, she was actually right to be concerned. As we read in our passage from 2 Corinthians, we are creatures of two dwellings: 1) the earthly tent, our physical body, and 2) our heavenly dwelling, a building made by God, our resurrection body( I Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 21:1-22:5) The first is flimsy, subject to corruption and death. The second is eternal, solid, a “building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
In the earthly tent we are conscious that there is more to be had, and so we groan and long for the day when we are ‘further clothed’ with the heavenly existence so that we may not be found naked – a likely reference to the so-called intermediate state between death and the believer’s resurrection in which we live as disembodied spirits while we await resurrection. We groan for the mortal to be “swallowed up by life”. Yet we are also very much this-world centered and it’s really difficult at times to imagine what it would be like to be ‘absent from the body and present with the Lord’. Nevertheless, for thousands of years, Christians have thought of themselves as ‘Pilgrims’(Hebrews 11:13), strangers or exiles on a journey through this life, whose citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
Joan Chittister has a wonderful description of this kind of pilgrim mentality. She describes pilgrim people as those who have a ‘Barefooted Soul’, who walk through this life awake, alert, Grateful, and only partially at home.
The folk song “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” also comes to mind. The plaintive lyrics speak of passing through a world of trouble on the way to see one’s parents and find a place of release from suffering.
I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
But there's no sickness, toil or danger
In that brith world to which I go.
I'm going threre to see my father
I'm going there no more to roam
I"m just a goin' over Jordan
I'm just a goin' over home.
Now, I grant you that the thinking expressed in this song is almost entirely negative. Life is hard, full of trials, deprecations and self-denial. There is a palpable sense of longing to be released from the struggle. I’m guessing that most of us don’t see life that way. Our culture has created such material comforts for us that our basic outlook about life is that it is Good. If we have trouble along the way, this is an aberration. In our culture, people write books about ‘why bad things happen to good people’, and spend hours debating why God allows evil things to happen in the world. If we fail, we expect someone to bail us out. We just can’t allow life to be Hard.
But as we can see – and feel – through the Wayfaring Stranger song, there is another more somber way of approaching life – one that understands that life is basically difficult and hard – and that suffering in this life is no surprise. This approach does not shake the fist at God, wondering why He allows hardship. Rather it looks forward to going ‘over Jordan’ and being released from suffering and death.
Now you might say, “That seems like an awfully negative way to view life – especially in view of all the good things there are to enjoy in life.” And you’re right. You and I live lives that the kings and nobility of the past couldn’t even imagine. We have so much material comfort that we often can’t relate to an outlook that sees life as hard or full of toil – something to be released from – a world we are traveling through on the way to somewhere else.
As Christians, I think we have a basic conflict within ourselves. How do we live here in this world, while we are traveling to another world? How do we take care of, and work for real change in this world, when ‘it’s all going to burn’ someday? Isn’t it all just futile?
And the answer is, “No, it’s not futile.” And that’s because there is a connection between this life and the next. What we do here really matters. The Kingdom of God is in our midst and God really does care for this world. Our eventual destination is not just “Heaven”, but Heaven on Earth – a New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven in which we live in resurrection bodies just the same as Jesus has (Rev. 212:2). This current world will eventually be recreated, but it has also been ‘invaded’ by God, and His Kingdom exists here and now.
Author Gustave Aulen refers to this as the “eschatological present” – life that happens between the first coming of Christ and his eventual return, life that sees the future in the now, and calls things that are not as if they already are (Romans 4:17) - life lived as a ‘caretaking Pilgrim’ if you will – someone who’s just passing through, but makes the world better as he goes.
So, that’s all pretty abstract. How does it relate to my daily life?
I’d like to suggest four directions for us out of this passage:
1) Have Faith
2) Please God
3) Remember Judgment
4) Expect a Crown
Let’s take them one by one and consider some ways we might apply these points.
Have Faith.
Paul tells us that we ‘walk by faith, not sight’ (v.7). Hebrews 11:1 says that … “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. Faith is Certainty in another reality that causes us to do things that don’t make sense to the world – such as spending your whole life building an ark when there’s not a rain cloud in sight, or refusing to bow down to an Emperor and dying because of it.
The important thing to remember about faith is that we don’t just endorse a set of ideas, or place our confidence in our faith itself, but that we Know Someone personally. As a result of this personal knowledge of Jesus Christ, we do certain things.
We don’t just passively possess faith, we actively exercise it. We are told to be courageous in the face of difficulties, to act and to be comforted and built up by the deposit of the Holy Spirit within us. We must believe God when he tells us that this world is not our ultimate home and that if we leave this body, we will be with Him. We are to have or exercise Faith.
Please God
Next, we are to Please God. What is it that pleases Him?
James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” In other words, care for those who cannot care for themselves and live a pure lifestyle. Micah 6:8 says it this way: “He has shown thee O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee, but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.”
We are to be just and merciful in our dealings with others – to treat everyone as if they were Jesus – and to be humble in our relationship with God. That means that we seek him through an attitude of listening prayer and ‘do whatever he tells us’ (John 2:5) – even if it seems contrary to what we think we want. After all, just think about the number of times your own parents wanted you to do something that you didn’t like, but which later turned out to be good for you. Those who serve the Lord in humility please him. Those who pursue their own way do not.
Remember Judgment
We must all appear before the judgment seat, or ‘bēma’ (Grk) of Christ. The bema was the tribunal bench in the Roman courtroom, where the governor sat while delivering his judgments. If you were to go to the Corinthian forum today, you could actually see the remains of such a bēma, which still exist. Like a Roman judge, Christ sits on the seat of Judgement,and when we die we stand before Him “so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (v. 10). Everything we do matters. Every act has consequences for good or ill – and we are responsible to Christ for all of it.
It is important to remember however, that believers face a different sort of judgement than non-believers. When the Christian is judged, he pleads the blood of Christ as His righteousness; he comes before Christ as a brother, already accepted by virtue of the finished work of Christ on the cross. The Christian’s works may be found to be ‘wood, hay, stubble, or precious jewels, gold and silver (1 Cor. 3:12-15). Our reward depends upon how faithfully we have built upon the foundation of Christ. Works that glorify our Lord receive a reward; works built on self are burned up as if going through a fire (v. 15). The believer is saved, but his works may perish.
Expect a Crown
Revelation 4:10 describes how the saints cast their crowns before the Lord. Here are five different types of crowns that that we might receive based on our works:
(1) The Crown of Righteousness
2 Tim. 4:8: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. This crown is for those who are living "soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Tit. 2:12).
(2) The Incorruptible Crown or "Victor's Crown"
1 Cor. 9:25: And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”
(3) The Crown of Rejoicing or "Soul Winner's Crown"
1 Thess. 2:19, 20: For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.
Phil. 4:1: Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
(4) The Crown of Life or "Martyr's Crown" (Js. 1:12; Rev. 2:10).
For those who suffer and give their lives for the gospel:
James 1:12: 12: Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Revelation 2:10: 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
(5) The Crown of Glory or "Pastor's Crown" (1 Pet. 5:2-4).
There’s even a crown for pastors, or ‘under-shpeherds’:
1 Peter 5:2-4: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. …So – expect a crown.
Again, the four directives are:
Have Faith
Please God
Remember Judgment
Expect a Crown
In wrapping up, I’d like to go back to the grieving mother I mentioned at the beginning. During a time of healing prayer the Lord showed her a picture of her daughter walking off with Jesus, and then turning back towards her mother and smiling. In this very brief visual image, she apprehended the essential truth that her daughter had left her earthly tent and was headed off with Jesus towards her heavenly dwelling. At that point, the mother was able to let go of her confused struggle and find peace by letting go and allowing her daughter to be cared for by Jesus.
Each one of us is headed for our heavenly dwelling as well. May God grant us the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit as we live with one foot in each world, awaiting his Glorious coming, and groaning to be clothed with Resurrection Life. AMEN.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Trinity Sunday 2009
A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on Trinity Sunday, June 7, 2009, at the convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.
Almighty Creator, who hast made all things,
The World cannot express all thy glories,
Even though the grass and the trees should sing.
The Father has wrought so great a multitude of wonders
That they cannot be equaled.
No letters can contain them, no letters can express them.
He who made the wonder of the world
Will save us, has saved us.
It is not too great a toil to praise the Trinity
Purely, humbly, in skillful verse
I should delight to give praise to the Trinity
In the Name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The little poem I just quoted comes from Wales and probably originated some time in the ninth century. I found it in a book called ‘A Celtic Psaltery’, compiled by David Adam, who is the vicar of the Holy Island in Northumbria and who has written or compiled 15 books about Celtic spirituality.
In preparing for this day of marking Trinity Sunday, my thoughts immediately gravitated to the Celts because as a culture, they seem to have had an intuitive understanding of ‘threeness’, even before the Gospel reached their shores.
Author Timothy Joyce notes that an awareness of ‘threeness’ was explicit in the pagan worship of the goddess Bridget, ‘who appeared in three forms: the goddesses of fire, of poetry, and of fertility, all three named Bridget!” Later, when the Celts became Christians, “this Trinitarian consciousness permeated Celtic spirituality An awareness of the threefold God shaped prayer after prayer, and a triad way of expressing prayer became common as well.” Joyce goes on to illustrate how “One such ritual prayer was a practice immediately following the birth of a child. The baby was carried in a circle around the room three times in the direction of the sun. Then it was handed over a fire three times in purification, and finally three drops of water were placed on its head. Thus was the child marked with the Trinity prior to its formal baptism.” (Celtic Christianity, A sacred tradition, a vision of hope, pgs. 19, 20).
Now I don’t know about you, but my understanding of the Trinity is considerably less ‘organic’ than this – although come to think of it, my wife comes from a family of three girls, Cindy and I had three girls – and my oldest daughter has three children – so maybe there is an organic connection to the Trinity in our family after all… and perhaps that family metaphor is apt.
“The God whom the Celtic peoples know is above all the Godhead who is Trinity, the God whose very essence is that of a threefold unity of person, three persons bound in a unity of love… [this] speaks …of harmony, unity, interrelationship, [and] interdependence…’ says Esther de Waal in her book, The Celtic Way of Prayer (‘CWP’pg. 38).
Our Western intellectual tradition leads us to view the Trinity in a rational, ‘scientific’ mode, as a sort of problem to be solved rather than as a mystery to be celebrated. Our minds tend to trip on this mystery, and instead of increasing our faith in God, this doctrine may actually become a stumbling block to us.
What Celtic spirituality offers us is an understanding of the Trinity that is natural, immediately accessible, and which can be understood in metaphors from common life, as in these lines from the Poem Book of Gael, complied by Eleanor Gull(quoted in de Waal, pgs. 39, 40)
“Three folds of the cloth, yet only one napkin is there,
Three Joints in the finger, but still only one finger fair.
Three leaves of the shamrock, yet no more than one shamrock to wear,
Frost, snow-flakes and ice, all in water their origin share
Three Persons in God; to one God alone we make prayer.”
This homey understanding of the Trinity resorts naturally to song and poetry in order to express deep mysteries that cannot really be understood or parsed intellectually, but which can actually be lived out intimately.
Esther de Waal says it well for us: “I want to be able to take my Trinitarian understanding into my daily life, into my praying and living, and words such as this help me to do that.” (CWP, pg. 45).
She’s talking about things like starting your day by splashing your face with water three times in honor of the Trinity – or crossing yourself “in the name of the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit” before you turn on your computer or begin a new work. She’s talking about contemplating the Trinity and then having words available to us such as the traditional prayer that an Irish woman might have used to bank the household fire at night:
The sacred Three
To save,
To shield,
To surround
The hearth,
The house,
The household
This eve,
This night,
Oh! This eve,
This night,
And every night,
Each single night.
Amen. (CWP pg. 48).
Do you have a relationship with the Trinity like this? …Me neither. It’s just not a part of my cultural equipment to think this way – even though I am trying to apply some of these ideas in my daily life. This is why we need words to help shape our thought process. Words such as the Nicene Creed, which we recite every Sunday – or the Athanasian Creed, which we will use today at the end of this sermon. Words such as this opening verse from a hymn by St. Columba:
The High Creator, the Unbegotten Ancient of Days,
Was without origin of beginning, limitless,
He is and He will be for endless ages of ages,
With whom is the only-begotten Christ, and the
Holy Spirit,
Co-eternal in the everlasting glory of divinity.
We do not confess three gods, but say one God,
Saving our faith in three most glorious Persons.
(Quoted in CWP, pg. 45).
Words such as these concerning the Trinity from St. Patrick:
“[Our God] has a Son co-eternal with himself and similar in all respects to himself; and neither is the Son younger than the Father, nor is the Father older than the Son; And the Holy Spirit breathes in them; Not separate are the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit.”
Who among us thinks this way naturally? Nobody – which is why we need these exalted and poetic words to help shape our thinking and our praying.
And here let me make a short defense for our liturgical style of worship. Our culture has come to denigrate Words and despise repetition. Words have been so devalued that important concepts in Religion, Politics and Morality commonly get swept under the carpet during debates with moronic phrases like “Whatever…”
Folks, Words matter. They matter because they convey meanings that are really important. But they also matter because they are beautiful and because the beauty of words feeds our soul. Our Bible contains books of Poetry and Wisdom. There are quotations from ancient hymns, and Songs, or Canticles, sung at important times by people like Moses, Mary, Simeon and Isaiah.
Compared to these wonderful Canticles, our normal daily vocabulary is pathetically limited when it comes to expressing depth and beauty in prayer.
We also think that ‘spontaneous’ prayer is superior to written prayer because it “comes from heart” and is more immediate. I’m not denying this and I do think spontaneous prayer is important, but we are also creatures who need input from outside ourselves to shape our spirituality and to help us to have vocabulary to express grander concepts than, “Just help us to have a good day today Lord,” or “God please heal us” or “Give us the money we need.”
Our liturgical prayers are carefully crafted to express deep truths in beautiful ways so that we can have something interesting to say to God – and so that our spirits may be nourished by the music of Words. We memorize and pray Songs and poetry from Scripture, as well as Collects and other prayers, because we believe in the Word, the Logos, but also because we believe in words as meaningful and spiritually helpful to us.
Liturgical worship is word based in both of these senses of ‘Word”. And on a day like Trinity Sunday, we need beautiful and precise words to help us grasp mysteries such as the Trinity.
Returning to our subject, I think the real importance of the Trinity in our daily lives is to help us understand the interrelatedness of all things and to help us grasp that God is not a distant and far-off impersonal Concept, but a deeply personal relational being who is with us in our everyday activities and who wants to be part of our daily lives. This is what the Celts seem to have grasped intuitively – that God is indeed Emmanuel – ‘With us”. He is indeed a ‘very present help in time of trouble (Ps. 46), a comfort to our souls, an Illuminator of words and the Word, as well the One who convicts us of our sins and graciously forgives us. He is the Creator God who pours out his gifts upon us abundantly each day and the One to who all praise and honor is due. He is the One we respond to in love –just as our Celtic Prayer of Dedication so beautifully expresses it:
“I am giving Thee offering with my whole thought,
I am giving Thee Love with my whole heart,
I am giving Thee affection with my whole devotion.
And I am giving Thee my soul, O God of all Gods.”
I pray for us that we may all enjoy this deeply personal affection for, and devotion to our God. May we also enjoy the Celtic appreciation for ‘threeness’ and for the poetry and music of our liturgical worship. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Almighty Creator, who hast made all things,
The World cannot express all thy glories,
Even though the grass and the trees should sing.
The Father has wrought so great a multitude of wonders
That they cannot be equaled.
No letters can contain them, no letters can express them.
He who made the wonder of the world
Will save us, has saved us.
It is not too great a toil to praise the Trinity
Purely, humbly, in skillful verse
I should delight to give praise to the Trinity
In the Name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The little poem I just quoted comes from Wales and probably originated some time in the ninth century. I found it in a book called ‘A Celtic Psaltery’, compiled by David Adam, who is the vicar of the Holy Island in Northumbria and who has written or compiled 15 books about Celtic spirituality.
In preparing for this day of marking Trinity Sunday, my thoughts immediately gravitated to the Celts because as a culture, they seem to have had an intuitive understanding of ‘threeness’, even before the Gospel reached their shores.
Author Timothy Joyce notes that an awareness of ‘threeness’ was explicit in the pagan worship of the goddess Bridget, ‘who appeared in three forms: the goddesses of fire, of poetry, and of fertility, all three named Bridget!” Later, when the Celts became Christians, “this Trinitarian consciousness permeated Celtic spirituality An awareness of the threefold God shaped prayer after prayer, and a triad way of expressing prayer became common as well.” Joyce goes on to illustrate how “One such ritual prayer was a practice immediately following the birth of a child. The baby was carried in a circle around the room three times in the direction of the sun. Then it was handed over a fire three times in purification, and finally three drops of water were placed on its head. Thus was the child marked with the Trinity prior to its formal baptism.” (Celtic Christianity, A sacred tradition, a vision of hope, pgs. 19, 20).
Now I don’t know about you, but my understanding of the Trinity is considerably less ‘organic’ than this – although come to think of it, my wife comes from a family of three girls, Cindy and I had three girls – and my oldest daughter has three children – so maybe there is an organic connection to the Trinity in our family after all… and perhaps that family metaphor is apt.
“The God whom the Celtic peoples know is above all the Godhead who is Trinity, the God whose very essence is that of a threefold unity of person, three persons bound in a unity of love… [this] speaks …of harmony, unity, interrelationship, [and] interdependence…’ says Esther de Waal in her book, The Celtic Way of Prayer (‘CWP’pg. 38).
Our Western intellectual tradition leads us to view the Trinity in a rational, ‘scientific’ mode, as a sort of problem to be solved rather than as a mystery to be celebrated. Our minds tend to trip on this mystery, and instead of increasing our faith in God, this doctrine may actually become a stumbling block to us.
What Celtic spirituality offers us is an understanding of the Trinity that is natural, immediately accessible, and which can be understood in metaphors from common life, as in these lines from the Poem Book of Gael, complied by Eleanor Gull(quoted in de Waal, pgs. 39, 40)
“Three folds of the cloth, yet only one napkin is there,
Three Joints in the finger, but still only one finger fair.
Three leaves of the shamrock, yet no more than one shamrock to wear,
Frost, snow-flakes and ice, all in water their origin share
Three Persons in God; to one God alone we make prayer.”
This homey understanding of the Trinity resorts naturally to song and poetry in order to express deep mysteries that cannot really be understood or parsed intellectually, but which can actually be lived out intimately.
Esther de Waal says it well for us: “I want to be able to take my Trinitarian understanding into my daily life, into my praying and living, and words such as this help me to do that.” (CWP, pg. 45).
She’s talking about things like starting your day by splashing your face with water three times in honor of the Trinity – or crossing yourself “in the name of the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit” before you turn on your computer or begin a new work. She’s talking about contemplating the Trinity and then having words available to us such as the traditional prayer that an Irish woman might have used to bank the household fire at night:
The sacred Three
To save,
To shield,
To surround
The hearth,
The house,
The household
This eve,
This night,
Oh! This eve,
This night,
And every night,
Each single night.
Amen. (CWP pg. 48).
Do you have a relationship with the Trinity like this? …Me neither. It’s just not a part of my cultural equipment to think this way – even though I am trying to apply some of these ideas in my daily life. This is why we need words to help shape our thought process. Words such as the Nicene Creed, which we recite every Sunday – or the Athanasian Creed, which we will use today at the end of this sermon. Words such as this opening verse from a hymn by St. Columba:
The High Creator, the Unbegotten Ancient of Days,
Was without origin of beginning, limitless,
He is and He will be for endless ages of ages,
With whom is the only-begotten Christ, and the
Holy Spirit,
Co-eternal in the everlasting glory of divinity.
We do not confess three gods, but say one God,
Saving our faith in three most glorious Persons.
(Quoted in CWP, pg. 45).
Words such as these concerning the Trinity from St. Patrick:
“[Our God] has a Son co-eternal with himself and similar in all respects to himself; and neither is the Son younger than the Father, nor is the Father older than the Son; And the Holy Spirit breathes in them; Not separate are the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit.”
Who among us thinks this way naturally? Nobody – which is why we need these exalted and poetic words to help shape our thinking and our praying.
And here let me make a short defense for our liturgical style of worship. Our culture has come to denigrate Words and despise repetition. Words have been so devalued that important concepts in Religion, Politics and Morality commonly get swept under the carpet during debates with moronic phrases like “Whatever…”
Folks, Words matter. They matter because they convey meanings that are really important. But they also matter because they are beautiful and because the beauty of words feeds our soul. Our Bible contains books of Poetry and Wisdom. There are quotations from ancient hymns, and Songs, or Canticles, sung at important times by people like Moses, Mary, Simeon and Isaiah.
Compared to these wonderful Canticles, our normal daily vocabulary is pathetically limited when it comes to expressing depth and beauty in prayer.
We also think that ‘spontaneous’ prayer is superior to written prayer because it “comes from heart” and is more immediate. I’m not denying this and I do think spontaneous prayer is important, but we are also creatures who need input from outside ourselves to shape our spirituality and to help us to have vocabulary to express grander concepts than, “Just help us to have a good day today Lord,” or “God please heal us” or “Give us the money we need.”
Our liturgical prayers are carefully crafted to express deep truths in beautiful ways so that we can have something interesting to say to God – and so that our spirits may be nourished by the music of Words. We memorize and pray Songs and poetry from Scripture, as well as Collects and other prayers, because we believe in the Word, the Logos, but also because we believe in words as meaningful and spiritually helpful to us.
Liturgical worship is word based in both of these senses of ‘Word”. And on a day like Trinity Sunday, we need beautiful and precise words to help us grasp mysteries such as the Trinity.
Returning to our subject, I think the real importance of the Trinity in our daily lives is to help us understand the interrelatedness of all things and to help us grasp that God is not a distant and far-off impersonal Concept, but a deeply personal relational being who is with us in our everyday activities and who wants to be part of our daily lives. This is what the Celts seem to have grasped intuitively – that God is indeed Emmanuel – ‘With us”. He is indeed a ‘very present help in time of trouble (Ps. 46), a comfort to our souls, an Illuminator of words and the Word, as well the One who convicts us of our sins and graciously forgives us. He is the Creator God who pours out his gifts upon us abundantly each day and the One to who all praise and honor is due. He is the One we respond to in love –just as our Celtic Prayer of Dedication so beautifully expresses it:
“I am giving Thee offering with my whole thought,
I am giving Thee Love with my whole heart,
I am giving Thee affection with my whole devotion.
And I am giving Thee my soul, O God of all Gods.”
I pray for us that we may all enjoy this deeply personal affection for, and devotion to our God. May we also enjoy the Celtic appreciation for ‘threeness’ and for the poetry and music of our liturgical worship. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on May 24, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, based on John 17:11b-19:
"Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." (ESV)
Today’s gospel reading is a portion of Jesus’ last recorded prayer before going to Calvary. It is his only recorded extended prayer, his so-called “High Priestly” prayer for himself and his disciples before dying on the cross. This particular section pertains to the church itself and we learn several key things about ourselves as the church that we may summarize in the following statement:
God keeps, sanctifies and unifies his people who live in the world so that they may take the Truth of God to the world without becoming like the world.
Now, regarding the keeping power of God, we observe that in verse 11, Jesus hands his disciples back to God. God has given followers to Jesus and he has guarded and kept them while he was on earth (verse 12). None was lost except Judas, and this was ordained before hand.
This is a team effort in which The Father and The Son work together to birth and protect their creation, the church. Christ has faithfully imparted God’s Word to his disciples, and his desire for them is that they experience the same unity that He himself enjoys with the Father - that his people may have His joy as they live in the world. Jesus also asks God to ‘sanctify’ his people (v.17) – to make them holy or ‘set apart’ so that they may be kept as a unique and ‘otherworldly’ people, even while they are in the world.
Now, let’s ask ourselves a question. Up to this point, what is that the followers of Jesus do or accomplish? …. Nothing. This is a conversation a takes place within the Godhead in the Garden of Gethsemane – while the disciples are mostly sawing logs. (With the exception that someone must have been awake enough to overhear this prayer…). In a couple of sentences Jesus has spoken volumes. He has told us that Salvation is a Gift of God; that God protects His people so that they may continue in the faith, and that Joy is the result of being united to God and to one another. All this is pure Gift, pure Grace.
Salvation comes from God. Perseverance in the faith comes from God. Unity comes from God. Sanctification comes from God. They are all Gifts, which are wonderful in and of themselves but which have a purpose – to enable God’s people to accomplish something ‘in the world’.
Now another question: What is ‘the World’ ? In his commentary on John, William Barclay says the world is “human society organizing itself apart from God”. Again: human society organizing itself apart from God. Perhaps the most famous example of this from the Old Testament is the Tower of Babel story, in which the people take it upon themselves to build a tower ‘reaching to the heavens’ – totally without regard for whether or not God in Heaven wants to be reached by means of a tower – so that they might make a name for themselves and be great. This is what the Greeks would have called Hubris – overweening pride. So then, to be worldly, means that you yourself are in charge of your own life, completely apart from what God desires for you.
From this definition, I hope you can see that the essence of worldliness is not what you eat or drink, not what you wear, whether or not you wear makeup, or put rings on your fingers. The essence of worldliness is the tendency towards self-sufficiency and doing things ‘my way’.
Now having said that, it is also true that having the ‘stuff’ of the world has a tendency to seduce us into thinking that we are in charge of our lives. Having a regular job with a regular income gives me the illusion of control. Being able to buy things whenever I wish can divert me from discomfort so that rather than turning to God for my deepest needs, I settle for some new clothes, a toy or some passing entertainment to dull my pain. Stuff is not bad in itself, but stuff can lure me into thinking there is nothing higher than stuff – and this is worldliness: organizing my life as if God did not exist.
Jesus prays for us to avoid this fate. He wants us to be intimately connected with God, to be like branches on the vine which only bear fruit as they stay connected to the vine. This is holiness, sanctification, dedication to God. It’s the only thing in life that produces True Life. And Jesus wants this for us more than anything.
Our Mission
But while being connected to God is wonderful in itself, we have also been given a job to do – to share that Wonder with others. Verse 18: “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” In Matthew 28:18, Jesus expands upon this sending: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Now notice that he didn’t say “Give them informational brochures’ or ‘post a website’ with this information and let it go at that. No. The Commission is deeply personal and labor-intensive: Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them. Do this for a long time – until the end of the age.
Friends, this is the Work of the Kingdom and every one of us is commissioned and expected to do it. This is what we are to do. And I’ll remind you again that most people come to church because they are invited. They’re invited by someone they know and they come because they know someone. What does this mean for you and I? It means that we have to be out there in the world getting to know people.
How are we going to do that? In one of our recent small group conversations, we agreed that most of us don’t really know any non-believers. Because of our busy work lives, and our participation in church activities, we don’t spend time with people in the world. We don’t know any Worldlings. Or if we do, we don’t want to spend time with them because their lives are worldly.
Often, churches look to the clergy to be the ‘evangelists’. Some clergy are indeed ‘evangelists by gifting, but certainly not all. Ephesians 4:11,12 gives us this model: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…” The work of the ministry belongs to each one of us. The Great Commission commissions every one of us as believers to do the work.
The work then, involves growing in holiness, being connected to The Vine so that when you go out into the world, the world does not co-opt you, but rather, you have Life to impart to the world.
Our 8th Day Life Groups are meant to help facilitate your growth in the faith and help you as you go out into the world ‘doing the stuff’.
In terms of our personal outreach, each one of us, me included, needs to think about how we meet our unchurched or unsaved neighbors and then how to engage them in an ongoing relationship. Mind you, I’m not just talking about inviting them to church – although that’s fine. But most likely, they won’t come unless they know you. So, logically, you have to get to know them. For the sake of reinforcing one method of doing this, I’d like to reiterate the SHOT Principle:
SHOT Principle for Growth:
Go Somewhere together.
Ask for Help with a ministry.
Share a meal at Our house.
Visit Their house; share Testimony.
I’ve got more of the SHOT card here today if you would like another one. Again, I recommend that you write down on the other side of this card the names of people you will personally pray for and personally engage by means of the SHOT approach.
Do you remember the figure 75,000? Do you recall that more than 80 percent of people in our area do NOT go to church on Sunday morning? And do you remember that 5 out of 10 people who do not go to church DO have some sort of church background?
When you seek the lost, you are not seeking total strangers. They are most likely church people who simply drifted away. These people need to be re-engaged as disciples and it’s our job to do it.
So, my prayer for us all is that God will indeed keep, sanctify and unify us who live in the world so that we may take the Truth of God to the world without becoming like the world. Amen.
"Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." (ESV)
Today’s gospel reading is a portion of Jesus’ last recorded prayer before going to Calvary. It is his only recorded extended prayer, his so-called “High Priestly” prayer for himself and his disciples before dying on the cross. This particular section pertains to the church itself and we learn several key things about ourselves as the church that we may summarize in the following statement:
God keeps, sanctifies and unifies his people who live in the world so that they may take the Truth of God to the world without becoming like the world.
Now, regarding the keeping power of God, we observe that in verse 11, Jesus hands his disciples back to God. God has given followers to Jesus and he has guarded and kept them while he was on earth (verse 12). None was lost except Judas, and this was ordained before hand.
This is a team effort in which The Father and The Son work together to birth and protect their creation, the church. Christ has faithfully imparted God’s Word to his disciples, and his desire for them is that they experience the same unity that He himself enjoys with the Father - that his people may have His joy as they live in the world. Jesus also asks God to ‘sanctify’ his people (v.17) – to make them holy or ‘set apart’ so that they may be kept as a unique and ‘otherworldly’ people, even while they are in the world.
Now, let’s ask ourselves a question. Up to this point, what is that the followers of Jesus do or accomplish? …. Nothing. This is a conversation a takes place within the Godhead in the Garden of Gethsemane – while the disciples are mostly sawing logs. (With the exception that someone must have been awake enough to overhear this prayer…). In a couple of sentences Jesus has spoken volumes. He has told us that Salvation is a Gift of God; that God protects His people so that they may continue in the faith, and that Joy is the result of being united to God and to one another. All this is pure Gift, pure Grace.
Salvation comes from God. Perseverance in the faith comes from God. Unity comes from God. Sanctification comes from God. They are all Gifts, which are wonderful in and of themselves but which have a purpose – to enable God’s people to accomplish something ‘in the world’.
Now another question: What is ‘the World’ ? In his commentary on John, William Barclay says the world is “human society organizing itself apart from God”. Again: human society organizing itself apart from God. Perhaps the most famous example of this from the Old Testament is the Tower of Babel story, in which the people take it upon themselves to build a tower ‘reaching to the heavens’ – totally without regard for whether or not God in Heaven wants to be reached by means of a tower – so that they might make a name for themselves and be great. This is what the Greeks would have called Hubris – overweening pride. So then, to be worldly, means that you yourself are in charge of your own life, completely apart from what God desires for you.
From this definition, I hope you can see that the essence of worldliness is not what you eat or drink, not what you wear, whether or not you wear makeup, or put rings on your fingers. The essence of worldliness is the tendency towards self-sufficiency and doing things ‘my way’.
Now having said that, it is also true that having the ‘stuff’ of the world has a tendency to seduce us into thinking that we are in charge of our lives. Having a regular job with a regular income gives me the illusion of control. Being able to buy things whenever I wish can divert me from discomfort so that rather than turning to God for my deepest needs, I settle for some new clothes, a toy or some passing entertainment to dull my pain. Stuff is not bad in itself, but stuff can lure me into thinking there is nothing higher than stuff – and this is worldliness: organizing my life as if God did not exist.
Jesus prays for us to avoid this fate. He wants us to be intimately connected with God, to be like branches on the vine which only bear fruit as they stay connected to the vine. This is holiness, sanctification, dedication to God. It’s the only thing in life that produces True Life. And Jesus wants this for us more than anything.
Our Mission
But while being connected to God is wonderful in itself, we have also been given a job to do – to share that Wonder with others. Verse 18: “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” In Matthew 28:18, Jesus expands upon this sending: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Now notice that he didn’t say “Give them informational brochures’ or ‘post a website’ with this information and let it go at that. No. The Commission is deeply personal and labor-intensive: Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them. Do this for a long time – until the end of the age.
Friends, this is the Work of the Kingdom and every one of us is commissioned and expected to do it. This is what we are to do. And I’ll remind you again that most people come to church because they are invited. They’re invited by someone they know and they come because they know someone. What does this mean for you and I? It means that we have to be out there in the world getting to know people.
How are we going to do that? In one of our recent small group conversations, we agreed that most of us don’t really know any non-believers. Because of our busy work lives, and our participation in church activities, we don’t spend time with people in the world. We don’t know any Worldlings. Or if we do, we don’t want to spend time with them because their lives are worldly.
Often, churches look to the clergy to be the ‘evangelists’. Some clergy are indeed ‘evangelists by gifting, but certainly not all. Ephesians 4:11,12 gives us this model: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…” The work of the ministry belongs to each one of us. The Great Commission commissions every one of us as believers to do the work.
The work then, involves growing in holiness, being connected to The Vine so that when you go out into the world, the world does not co-opt you, but rather, you have Life to impart to the world.
Our 8th Day Life Groups are meant to help facilitate your growth in the faith and help you as you go out into the world ‘doing the stuff’.
In terms of our personal outreach, each one of us, me included, needs to think about how we meet our unchurched or unsaved neighbors and then how to engage them in an ongoing relationship. Mind you, I’m not just talking about inviting them to church – although that’s fine. But most likely, they won’t come unless they know you. So, logically, you have to get to know them. For the sake of reinforcing one method of doing this, I’d like to reiterate the SHOT Principle:
SHOT Principle for Growth:
Go Somewhere together.
Ask for Help with a ministry.
Share a meal at Our house.
Visit Their house; share Testimony.
I’ve got more of the SHOT card here today if you would like another one. Again, I recommend that you write down on the other side of this card the names of people you will personally pray for and personally engage by means of the SHOT approach.
Do you remember the figure 75,000? Do you recall that more than 80 percent of people in our area do NOT go to church on Sunday morning? And do you remember that 5 out of 10 people who do not go to church DO have some sort of church background?
When you seek the lost, you are not seeking total strangers. They are most likely church people who simply drifted away. These people need to be re-engaged as disciples and it’s our job to do it.
So, my prayer for us all is that God will indeed keep, sanctify and unify us who live in the world so that we may take the Truth of God to the world without becoming like the world. Amen.
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