Rivers Bring Life

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit created life.  And then, they began to spread life everywhere.  God the Father created the heavens and the earth.  He did so through God the Son, as the book of Colossians says: “For by him (Jesus Christ) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth.”  But the Holy Spirit is also active in the creation of the world, as Genesis tells us when it says, “and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”  The Triune God loves life, and let me tell you, I do too!  And I just love the way that this Triune God bring us life.

The focus of waters right from the beginning gives us an indication of the way that God was going to use water as that which brings us life. Genesis 2:10-14 says, “A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”

The river flowing from Eden gives life to all that God has created.  The river separates into four headwaters which signify the four corners of the world as the ancients understood it.  God simply used four rivers to bring life to the entire creation.  From the beginning, water was life.  And water is best delivered by way of a river. 

Later, in a seemingly hopeless time for God’s people, the prophet Ezekiel was given a vision of a river flowing from the altar in the Temple.  Though it started very small it was soon a great river with many trees growing on the banks.  The river flowed into the Salt Sea and there everything turned sweet with swarms of living creatures everywhere.  People were fishing on the banks of what once was a barren body of water.  This is a great picture of a river giving life to flora, fauna and folks everywhere.  Don’t we just long for the vision of Ezekiel to become a reality in our lives?

Ezekiel’s vision is repeated in the last book of the Bible.  In the last chapter of Revelation, when heaven has come down to earth and eternity is about to begin, we see a river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God.  As it flows there are trees that line the river producing fruit every month of the year.  The leaves of those trees are for healing the brokenness of the world.  So once again, as in the beginning, the river is the way that God brings life to the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Right in the middle of these beautiful images of rivers giving life to all God has created, Jesus takes this image several notches higher.  In John 7:37-39 it says, “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”  Jesus is the ultimate life giver, but with this unbelievable promise he tells us that all who drink of him will become rivers of life-giving water.  Imagine that; out of me and you there will be a river of life wherever we go!

I so want that to be true of me.  I long to be a river of life flowing all over the place, giving life to whomever wades into my waters.  This is also why I find caring for rivers and streams so very important, especially in the context of a church ministry.  Rivers bring life to all the creation.  The church is called to bring life to all creation.  And when we can combine the two in a visible way that helps the world see how much we value bringing life to creation, that is truly a beautiful thing, and something that gets the attention and appreciation of our community.

Rivers are essential for our environment so we need to care for them.   It does not matter if they are the mighty Mississippi or little Rush Creek.  But whether we are restoring badly degraded waterways or simply appreciating the life they give, each one of us is called to be a river of life spreading God’s life in some way wherever we go.  Are we doing it?

Church on Mission

               

I can remember my mother talking with enthusiasm about a young man in our town, “That boy is going somewhere someday; he’s a man on a mission!”  The reason why people have equated success with being on a mission is that to be on a mission you must be very focused and determined.  This is true in most every aspect in life.  To go someplace it is important to be on a mission.  This is also true of the church.  The church, from the very beginning, has been on a mission.  However, over time it seems like other concerns divert us from the mission, and instead of going someplace the church becomes stagnant. 

                I think there are a couple of reasons for this.  First of all, I think we have all grown up in a church where mission is seen as something only done in another context and by other people.  This false understanding that mission is something done “overseas” has been very detrimental to the church.  When we think of the church primarily as a place for the care and fellowship of the saints or the members, we have lost the biblical understanding of what the church really is.  Jesus Christ did not die for a club but for a church, which was left here on earth to carry out the mission which he began: to seek and to save the lost EVERYWHERE.  There are people who need Jesus all around us.  More than half of the people who live in Georgetown Township do not attend church.  Many of them were once members of a church but came to resent the church or see it as irrelevant.  Additionally, God has brought many refugees into our community and this is a tremendous opportunity to be on mission for Jesus.

                The second reason why the church today is not on mission is that we simply do not know how.  For many established suburban CRC churches the only prerequisite to growing has been to have a nice building, a halfway decent preacher and a very good organist.  There was never any need, and perhaps not much concern, about reaching the lost.  In fact, if churches in the suburbs wanted to reach the lost they would start at “chapel” and the new believers could go there, but not to our churches.

                Today this is still what draws people to church: beautiful and useful buildings, strong preaching, excellent music programs and exciting kid/youth programs.  But this still does not mean that a church has a mission other than to collect people from other churches that are already believers.  What is really rare today is a church on mission, where the people attending are there because of their love and calling into the mission of Christ to save the lost.

                The movement that is needed to enter into the mission of Christ is one which requires us to submit all of our own desires to His and all of our own personal missions to His mission. It means singing with sincerity the hymn, “Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to thee…Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. Take my intellect and use every pow’r as Thou shalt choose…Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.”  When we understand the sacrifice that is required to be on mission with Christ, we will be able to do some amazing things for Him because of Him.

                Being a man or woman or boy or girl on a mission is really the only way to live.  This is why Christ created us and redeemed us in the first place.  And when we are on mission with Christ, we are living the live we have been given to live.  It simply does not get any better than that.

                On a personal note to the church I pastor, I would like to emphasize that I believe that this is the time, today is the day, that Trinity CRC must strengthen its resolve to be the church we are called to be, a church that marches forward with confidence on a gospel-proclaiming, world- redeeming mission.  And we are in a position to do this, God helping us, as we keep our mission aligned with his mission.  We need to be a body of grace-embracing, love-motivated, Spirit-filled people who can put aside some previous notions of the role of the church and of the place of missions and follow the command of Christ to follow God on his mission to redeem and restore the world, near and far, wherever that takes us.  I hope this describes each one of us, and I invite you to a great adventure of mission with Trinity CRC.

Diverse Leadership in the Early Church

The level of racial tension in the U.S. right now is very high.  And I am afraid that even Christians have not become immune to this deadly virus.  We can so easily respond by cocooning in our own ethnic environment.  But this is certainly not the Lord’s will and destructive to our mission and calling in the world.  The Lord has taught us how very important collaboration is between different ethnic groups by revealing to us the ethnic make-up of the leadership in the church in Antioch.  The disciples were very intentional about keeping a multi-ethnic church together in the face of Jew and Gentile tensions.  They were not willing to let each ethnic group start their own separate church.  If you look at the leadership of the church in Antioch you will see the face, or faces, of integration.

Acts 13:1 says, “In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.”  The names that are given here actually tell us a lot about the people who formed the leadership and teaching team of the church in Antioch.

Barnabas is really quite well known.  We are introduced to him in Acts 4:36, 37.  His name was Joseph and he was a Levite from Cyprus.  The apostles called him Barnabas which means “son of Encouragement,” or simply an encourager.  Being from Cyprus we was a Hellenistic Jew which meant his principle language was Greek and he was immersed in the Greek culture.  If I would put a face on Barnabas it would be this one: 

The next leader of the church mentioned in this passage is Simeon called Niger.  Because there were probably other men named Simeon they distinguished him by calling him by a Latin name, Niger, which means black.  Now to call somebody black in a location and place where most everybody had a darker skin tone, probably means he had very dark complexion.  So Niger was a black man most likely from Africa.   If I would put a face on Niger he would look like the portrait to the left.

The third person listed on the leadership council of the church in Antioch is Lucius of Cyrene.  Once again the name Lucius was common in the Roman world so they added where he was from in order to distinguish him.  He was from Cyrene.  This is a place in North Africa close to where Libya is today.  Before the Arab invasion of North Africa in the 600’s almost all of the inhabitants would be from African descent.  So I think the picture to the right would look at lot like Lucius:

Next we read about Manaen.  The explanation that the text gives is that he “had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch.”  Literally this means that he shared the same wet nurse as Herod the Tetrarch.  As was often the case in wealthy families, mothers did not nurse their own children but got a servant to do that.  In any case, Manaen was very close to a very wealthy family and a close personal friend of Herod the Tetrarch, the person who had John the Baptist beheaded.  Yet Manaen went down another path as God called him into leadership of the church in Antioch.  Manaen would have been ethnically similar to the Palestinians today.  He might have looked like the picture on the left.

Finally we come to Paul.  Paul was a Hebraic Jew, born in Tarsus and raised in Jerusalem under the tutelage of Rabbi Gamaliel.  Paul was a Jew of Jews, being extremely well-versed in the teachings of the Law.  I would imagine Paul looking something like this:

Now, if you put these five faces together as the leadership of the church in Antioch, you can see how diverse the leadership actually was.  But this diverse leadership was exactly what was needed for a multiethnic church and a mission to all the ethnic groups in the Roman Empire.  Jerusalem, on the other hand, was still largely Jewish in its outlook and, in fact, sent envoys to Antioch trying to make them become more Jewish and not simply be followers of Christ in their own ethnic way.  I believe this is exactly why God used the church in Antioch to be the missionary church to the entire world. You might say that because of Antioch’s diversity, they were well equipped to be able to bring the Gospel to a diverse world.  They were able to let Jews be Jews, Romans be Romans, Greeks be Greeks, and Cyprians be Cyprians, all being transformed by the Spirit of Christ.

It is my strong belief that what the church of Jesus Christ needs today are diverse congregations that, because of their diversity, are more easily able to bring the Gospel to every nation, race and ethnic group in the world.  May God bless us with more and more churches of diversity.

The Big Bad Book

I can remember getting quite worried over what was going to be revealed when I stood before the judgement seat of God and all the books were opened and every sinful thing I had ever done would be read off for the entire world to hear.   I could only think about how terrible this would be and I wished that I might be able to skip out on this.   I was often told that you cannot skip out on this exercise, but that everybody had to go through it.  I thought about how embarrassing this would be to have my mother, who I knew was going to be there, listen to everything I had so carefully concealed from her.  That was scary!   In fact, the whole reason that eternity was going to be eternal was to give enough time to read everybody’s list – that is how long eternity will have to be.  I am sure it would take several weeks just to get through mine!

Lately I have been looking at the book of Revelation anew.  I came to that passage that says, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened.” Then it says that the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  I have spent some time thinking about this.  Something that helped me understand this is an exercise called blackout poetry. 

Blackout poetry is when a person takes a newspaper or a book and, using just one page, blacks out all the words that they do not want to be in the poem.  The result is a poem consisting of only the words that the person has left uncovered.  I have a good idea that this might be what will happen to everything that we have done wrong.  It will be blacked out by the grace of Christ.  Or, you might say, that his blood will completely “red” out the sin and leave only three simple words. 

I decided I would try this.  So I got the book East of Eden, by John Steinbeck.  I took that book because it really examines sin as it takes root in a family relationship, something that happened after the fall of Adam and Eve when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden to the east.  Well this is the blackout poem that I made from page 42 of the book East of Eden, and that I believe Jesus creates in our books: 

Everything is gone except the most powerful three words in the world: “I love you.”  That made so much sense to me.  I recall the great words from Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”  Another beautiful passage that comes to mind which gives me such great assurance is I Corinthians 13:5, which says that love “keeps no record of wrongs.”  If the Lord is instructing us to demonstrate this kind of love, you can be sure that he is modeling this kind of love for us every day.

I have greater comfort now that when the books are opened at the last judgment, what each of us who have found forgiveness in Christ will see is a blackout poem with nothing but the wonderful words, “I love you,” –Jesus.

Palm Power

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.  Martin Luther King (1958)

We live in an ever-increasingly violent society.  It seems that violence has a price tag and people are making their living off violence.  From electronic video games and YouTube clips that display violence, to the weather reporters who try to make every storm violent, and ultimately to groups like ISIS who film terrible atrocities, we are surrounded by violence.  Even when you read the Bible there are some times when you run into a great deal of violence.  People are beheaded, taken as slaves, and maimed.  Children are mercilessly killed, even sacrificed over the fire.

And then Jesus comes on the scene.  In a world of darkness and violence, here comes light and peace.  He absolutely refuses to fight fire with fire or violence with violence.  When he was about to be pushed over a cliff after his first sermon, he just walked away and never raised a fist.  He encouraged his followers not to resist an evil man; and even if somebody might require something from them, offer that person more than their unreasonable request.

But the power of peace was fully realized when Jesus defeated his longtime nemesis, Satan.  When Jesus was taken to the cross he did not resist for one minute.  He was, as Isaiah says, a “Lamb led to the slaughter.”  At a time when anyone else would have clenched his fists, Jesus opened his palms and let them drive the nails through his hands.  It was in this most unexpected way that the most powerful dark force in the universe was defeated.  It was Palm Power which broke the Devil and set the prisoner free.  In a day when we are told that the only way to defeat a bad man with a gun is to find a good man with a bigger gun, I really wonder what Jesus would do.  Perhaps we should reflect on our preferential strategy of defeating evil with overwhelming force.   Jesus defeated overwhelming evil with love.

As I have been reading and studying the book of Revelation this winter I have often thought about the amount of violence that is recorded there in the vision of John.  One thing I know is that since Jesus has already defeated Satan with Palm Power, there is no reason for him to have to now resort to violence to finish him off.  It seems like an insult to the power of the cross to say that Jesus could deal Satan a mortal blow by Palm Power, yet then have to pick up a sword to finish him off.  What John sees in the book of Revelation is simply the rebellion of a defeated foe.  When all the power Satan can muster faces off against Christ, Christ only has to show up and the evil armies will simply crumble when he speaks the Word.  Why would Christ, who called the world into existence with his Word, have to use a sword to defend himself?  It is beneath his dignity.  The sword which comes from his mouth is simply his Word, which is so powerful that he was able to call the stars into existence and give life to man.  He would never use man’s weapons to do God’s job. 

So it is Palm Power which conquered Satan and it is Palm Power which brings his ultimate destruction.   Jesus met the forces of hate and conquered them with love.  We can too.

Little Woman, Huge Faith

We all live up to our beliefs.  Truly, we live according to what we believe to be true.  However, that which we profess to believe we rarely live up to.  There is a huge difference in what we actually believe and that which we profess to believe.

In the story about the woman from Syrophoenicia recorded in Matthew 15:21-28, Jesus is addressing the true beliefs of his disciples regarding women and Gentiles.  Though they might have been honest enough to confess their prejudices, Jesus is using a powerful teaching moment to expose their sinful attitudes.  Let’s look carefully at how he does it.

I have often struggled with this passage because in it Jesus seems to be so harsh and cruel to a minority single mom who needs help for her daughter.  You would think that Jesus would be very kind and compassionate to her, as he has been to others in the past.  He healed the servant of a Centurion.  He healed a demoniac on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  He raised the synagogue ruler’s daughter who had died.  He had just said, “Come until me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  And then a single mom with a terribly sick daughter comes to him and he says and does nothing.  This is not the Jesus I know.  Why?

As I mentioned, Jesus is exposing the sexism and racism of his disciples.  These ran deep in the culture in those days.  There was a prayer which men often said which went like this: “Blessed are you Lord God for not making me a Gentile, a slave, or a woman.”  This prayer was said every morning by devout men in Israel.  Paul addresses this very prayer in his letter to Galatians when he says in 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  Even the order of the groups mentioned is exactly the same in the Jewish prayer and in Paul’s teaching against this statement.

Sexism was so rampant in Israel at the time of Jesus that a Rabbi would not speak to a woman in public, not even to his own family members.  So when Jesus did not reply to this Syrophoenician woman it was out of his character to remain silent, but it would be the norm of how a rabbi would treat the situation.  And unfortunately the disciples seem ok with that.  In fact the disciples tell Jesus to send her away because she is annoying them.

Jesus then affirms their belief by saying that he was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel.  But he has already healed Gentiles and their children.  Why now does he say this?  Well, he is engaging in something called reductio ad adserdem.  This is when a person takes a position and shows its logical conclusion.  This is something people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King were very good at doing.

But this woman is very insistent.  She comes to Jesus again on her knees and begs him to help her.

Then, amazingly, Jesus replies with the most insensitive saying imaginable.  He says that it is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the little dogs.  Now this is hard for me to listen to from the mouth of Jesus.  Dogs were just a bit above pigs.  They were despised.  They were not domesticated or house pets.  Jesus is using the term little dogs, but I don’t know if this is any better.

Hopefully the disciples at this time are hearing what their own views about women and Gentiles actually sound like.  Jesus is illustrating in a graphic way what their own racism and sexism really look and sound like.  He was using this special moment and his gift of teaching to rid them of their prejudices.

Jesus also used this special moment to heal the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter.  Jesus blessed her because of her great faith.

Jesus had a great appreciation for the faith of women and elevated them whenever he could.  He allowed a sinful woman to anoint his feet.  He allowed Mary to hug him after his resurrection.  He allowed Mary to sit at his feet and he taught her right along with the rest of his disciples.  He was revolutionary when it came to his positive dealings with women, even those who were not Jewish.

The faith of this single minority mom was huge, and her daughter was healed.  The disciples, on the other hand, learned an important lesson about how to treat women and minorities.  This is a lesson we all need to learn.

The Spirit Guides

The beauty of the Bible is that is always challenges us to look very carefully at what God is teaching us. During the months of January and February I have been learning a lot about the early church and how the church should function. The Spirit-filled church of Acts has so much to teach us in how we go about doing church. One area in which I am growing is in the area of understanding how the Holy Spirit leads us.

Ever since I went to a seminar on listening prayer at the beginning of January, I have been studying the book of Acts trying to find out how the Holy Spirit guided the early church and its leaders. I have combed through the entire book of Acts and looked at every instance of where individuals or groups have received divine guidance to see what principles and patterns I could find.

Overall, I found four predominant ways that the early church was guided to make decisions. The first way was in putting forth a proposal and discussing it together. The church leaders used this proposal and discussion method in at least three instances: in Acts 1, when they were looking for a replacement for Judas; in Acts 6, when they were choosing the seven men who would oversee the distribution of food to widows; and in Acts 15, where they were resolving differences over Gentile believers coming into the church.

The second frequently occurring way of finding guidance was through a vision. In Acts 9, Saul had a vision of Christ at his conversion and was instructed in what to do next. In Acts 10, both Cornelius, a God-fearing gentile, and the apostle Peter received complimentary instructions through visions. In Acts 16, Paul had his vision of the man calling for help from Macedonia. And then in Acts 18, Paul received a vision encouraging him to keep teaching in Corinth.

Thirdly, we find that angels were often sent to give guidance and protection to apostles in difficult or uncertain circumstances, such as imprisonment, storms at sea, and even Philip’s being sent to teach the Ethiopian eunuch. You can find these stories in Acts 5, 8, 12 and 27.

The fourth commonly occurring form of guidance was by the voice of the Holy Spirit being manifested in some way. This very often occurred when someone was to be sent to a new place or to do something new. For example, in Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas were sent on their missionary journey by the word of the Spirit. In Acts 20, Paul was compelled to go to Jerusalem by the Spirit. Then in Acts 21, Paul received a prophecy from the prophet Agabus, which was given by the Spirit. Peter also received a word from the Spirit, along with the vision, in Acts 10.

Having discovered all this, I can only come to one sure set of conclusions and that is this: the Holy Spirit guided the early church in a variety of ways depending on the people and the circumstances involved. The Spirit guided the early church even at times when it does not appear that they were looking for guidance. He guided by a certain method in one instance and in the next instance he lead in another way. Each person and each circumstance was different and the Holy Spirit knew what was needed.

We have to be careful that we do not put the Holy Spirit in a box and try to control the way that he speaks to us. However, it is so very important that we seek to have the mind of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2:16 Paul concludes a discussion about knowing God’s will by saying, “But we have the mind of Christ.” Again in Romans 12:2 Paul teaches us, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Growing so close to Christ that we know his mind is so very helpful in knowing the will of God in situations that we encounter. To me it is like that old game show on TV called “The Newlyweds.” Remember how one of the couple was in a back room and they asked questions to the other spouse to see if they knew how the hidden spouse would answer. Then they got them back together and found out how close they might have come to knowing the mind of their spouses. Some couples knew each other so well that they almost always knew what the other one was thinking.
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When we really mature in Christ and get to know the mind of Christ, we know what his will would be in more and more of the situations that we are faced with in life. Finding God’s will does not have to be a difficult thing as we begin to simply know the will of the Lord because we understand the mind of Christ. This is what we should all be seeking in our lives -- renewing our minds to know the will of God.

Glory in the End

Have you ever imagined how your own death will come about? Now I know this might seem macabre, but I would imagine most people have thought about it. I can remember in grade school, in Minnesota, in the depth of winter, our class read, “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. It is the story of a man in the Yukon who freezes to death walking to his friend’s cabin. Ever since that time I have thought that freezing to death would be the worst way to die.










Interestingly, there is a short section in the Gospel of John which talks about the subject of dying. Jesus has prepared a breakfast of fish for his disciples and begins to ask Peter if he loves him more than anything. Peter responds three times that he does. Then, after the third expression of love, Jesus says to Peter, “I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out you hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Then John adds, “Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.”

​What was Jesus telling Peter here? This passage has often been used to indicate that Peter was crucified. And this could be what it means because the word used for “get dressed” means ‘tie up a belt,” which in those days would be a rope. In the days of the Romans, being tied up probably meant you were a prisoner and possibly were going to be crucified. The other expression, “stretch out you hands,” was often used to describe crucifixion. Though we cannot be certain, Jesus may have been informing Peter that he probably would suffer at the end of his life and that this suffering would lead to his death.

​But this passage could also simply mean that when a person is younger he is able to do as he pleases and go where he wants to go and take care of himself. But when he gets older and closer to death, others will care for him, dress him and take him places where he does not want to go. The aging process always ends in death and Jesus was telling Peter that he would live to be old, but even in dying in weakness and blindness he was still going to glorify God.

​I am sure Jesus had Peter thinking. He probably thought that he was fortunate that he would live to be old. But he also knew that he was going to die in weakness and even through that weakness he was going to be able to glorify God. I wonder if we think about how our death will glorify God. And what would make a God-glorifying death?

​I believe what Jesus was looking for from Peter was a life lived in complete service to him. That Peter would be faithful to the very end of his life and that even in the face of sickness, blindness, captivity, suffering or whatever might come his way, he would not complain but simply graciously thank the Lord for his gift of grace. Jesus was looking for Peter to live as Paul would later write in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

​I do not know how I will die, though I still hope I do not freeze to death, but I trust that I will be faithfully serving the Lord with every ounce of strength he gives me to the very end. And if that means suffering, then may I glorify Christ in my suffering as well.

Absorbing Evil

One of the more puzzling verses in the Bible is found in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Here in chapter one verse twenty four Paul says, “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.”

What could Paul be saying to us here? Well, we can say with certainty that the afflictions and suffering of Christ on the cross were sufficient to garner salvation for all who call on him in faith. So it is not that something required for salvation has not been accomplished by Christ. His sacrifice was enough. But what about the sufferings that Paul is talking about?

We can also be sure that Paul is not thinking that it is only he who suffers. Though he suffered considerably, he also is clear in teaching that anybody who follows Christ will suffer. So if our sufferings are not redemptive, that is they do not contribute in any way to our salvation, why should we experience suffering?

We often think that evil can be defeated by force. The greater the evil, the greater the force needed to defeat it. However, when Christ took on the greatest evil there has ever been, Satan, he defeated it by absorbing it. What I mean is that he took the hardest blows that evil could dish out and he absorbed it into himself. This is also what he taught his disciples to do when they would face evil.

If somebody is going to strike you on the cheek, turn the other cheek to them so that they can strike that cheek also. If somebody asks for your coat, you should give them your shirt as well. If a Roman soldier asked you to carry his back pack one mile, carry it two miles for him. This type of action is what destroys evil. Paul summed it up when he said, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

So what is it that overcomes evil? Evil is absorbed and overcome by loving your enemies and those who do evil. This is what Jesus is doing and this is what he is asking us to do as well. His mission is now our mission. “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you,” says Jesus to all his disciples. So true disciples of Christ should be absorbers of evil and not perpetrators of evil. When we see suffering and pain, the right response should be to do what we can to enter into the suffering and pain of the person suffering it. We too are called to be carriers of pain and suffering. Now this is not a very jazzy calling and one which most Christians shy away from. But none-the-less, it is our calling as Christians to actively bear the burdens of others and not to run away from them or isolate ourselves from them.

To some Christians this may not sound very inviting, yet this seems to be the clear teaching of Christ for his disciples. We should look around us and be more willing to find the hurting and the suffering in order to come along side of them and carry their burden with them. Engaging in this type of action is the great destroyer of evil, and it is within our ability to do.

God the Seamstress

Some time ago I gave a funeral message for a member of my congregation. She was well known as a seamstress par excellence, sewing innumerable wedding dresses. So in my funeral message I encouraged the family to use their memory of her work as a seamstress to be reminded of the Gospel which saved her, and all those who are clothed in Christ’s garments of salvation.

After all God does indeed know a bit about sewing and clothing. In fact, on that dark day when his perfect creation was sliced open by sin, God sewed his first outfits and gave them to Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness; something they had not be aware of before. Their sin caused them to sense their need for clothing and their crude fig leaves were replaced with God’s garments.

Ever since Adam and Eve’s plunge into sin, mankind has had a sense of nakedness and the need to be clothed. This is a universal result of sin. Even people who live in the remote tropics and seemingly have no need for clothing still wear something without which they would feel, well…naked.

As a result of this universal feeling of nakedness, God has been a great seamstress who is clothing his family. Clothing is a symbol of God’s salvation and this can be seen even in the great sin sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. On this, the most holy day of the Jewish calendar, the High Priest would take off his priestly garments, the robe, the ephod and the breast plate, and was instructed to wear only the white linen tunic woven of one piece of fine fabric. Then in this white linen garment he was allowed to meet with God in the Holy of Holies as he sprinkled the sacrificial blood on the ark.

You know there was somebody else who wore a fine white linen tunic. He too was a High Priest, though unrecognized as one until his sacrifice was finally understood. The Apostle John gives us the story:

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
"Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”

I have always wondered why Jesus would wear something that was so fine the Roman soldiers did not want to rip it up. I like imagining Jesus as the funky itinerant teacher dressed in something from Salvation Army. But under it all he wore a fine white linen tunic of the sort the High Priest would wear into the Holy of Holies. In the case of Christ though, it was stripped from him in order that he would take our sin, shame and nakedness on the cross, so that we in turn could be clothed in his righteousness. He was the only one who could stand before God naked and unashamed. He became unclothed, so that we could become clothed with the finest of wedding garments.

In this life we still feel a bit naked and exposed. Death is one of the things that can do this. Death reminds us just how feeble and frail we are no matter what we might be wearing. You cannot dress up death. Our own sense of nakedness simply moves us to find the greatest seamstress, our Father, who gives us the festal garments of salvation.

It is God who has created us for this very purpose, for this very wedding feast. And it is with confidence that we look forward to this feast for in Christ we will not be found naked but clothed in the white garments of righteousness.

Worship is a Relationship

When I was a missionary in Central America, I traveled to various countries. I remember exchanging money in Nicaragua in the mid 1980s when there was rampant inflation. I still have some nice, fresh 1,000 Cordoba bills. At that time, they were worth about $.50. They became so devalued that they were recalled, and another zero was stamped on them, making them 10,000 Cordoba bills. (Today they work well for playing Monopoly.)

Typically in our culture, the financial principle of supply and demand determines the value of things. Generally, if there is a great deal of something, its value is much less. If a commodity is in short supply, its value goes up. This principle has been applied to worship in unfortunate ways.

Does Absence Make the Heart Grow Fonder?

The apostle Paul tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, instructing us that this is our act of worship. Based on this teaching, many Christians want to say that everything we do is worship. Others counter this trend, though, saying that if everything is worship, then nothing is worship. I call the latter view the economic view of worship. It treats worship as a commodity. Viewing worship in this way might be popular with many, after all, look at all the people who just worship on Christmas and Easter. They might argue that they starve themselves of regular worship in order to make those few times of worship much sweeter. I know that in my own denomination it has been argued that if we celebrate the Lord’s Supper too often, it will lose it’s meaning for the people. Less Lord’s Supper, more value. More Lord’s Supper, less value. But worship is not a commodity, it’s a relationship.

Relationships function in a different manner than commodities. That “absence makes the heart grow fonder” is a rumor that has been passed around for years now. But is it true? Should relationships be treated like commodities, so that when lovers do not see each other frequently they actually grow fonder of each other? If you feel a distance between you and your spouse, do you really think it will help to send him or her to Oregon while you stay in Kansas, hoping that after a year apart you’ll have grown closer together? This is nonsense!

Regular Fellowship Around the Living Word

Since worship is a relationship between God and his people, the more time we spend together the stronger our relationship will be. The very first worship “service” of the New Testament church illustrates this. The apostle John says that the disciples were locked in a room when Jesus suddenly appeared and stood among them. The Lord said, “Peace be with you!” They looked at his hands and side and were filled with joy.

On the next week the disciples were at the same place, and Jesus appeared among them again and said, “Peace be with you.” Then turning to Thomas, who had missed last week’s “service,” Jesus showed Thomas his hands and side. Thomas responded by exclaiming, “My Lord and my God.”

Worship can’t be commoditized; it is a relationship in which we fellowship around the living Word of God in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Word speaks to us, and we respond in joyful commitment to him. Ever since that first Sunday worship service, the church has continued to see worship as gathering around the risen Savior and fellowshipping with him.

Our worship planning must never turn worship into a commodity or take away from the beautiful simplicity of fellowshipping around the Living Word.

With the Eyes of Your Heart

Octavio Ocampo is an artist from Mexico who paints in what he calls a "metamorphic" style. What this means is that he superimposes and juxtaposes images within the painting that he is creating. Here is a good example of his artistic skill:

What do you see? Most people look at it and see an elderly couple. But as you begin to make out the detail you will find a young couple in the center of the picture. Ocampo painted the older couple seeing each other as they were when they were much younger. You can even look into the older man's mind and notice how he carries his chosen as a beautiful young woman standing in a doorway. You might say that this couple is looking at each other with the eyes of their hearts.

The Apostle Paul informs the church in Ephesus that he is praying for them. He says, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened." (Ephesians 1:18) The reason for this is so the people could fully understand all that they have in Christ; the hope and the wonderful spiritual riches. These are things that we cannot see with just the eyes of our mind, but things that will become clear when we learn how to see with the eyes of our heart.

I have a feeling that we probably miss a great deal of what Jesus might be doing in our lives because we do not see well with the eyes of our heart. We have not developed the spiritual vision to capture the truly wonderful things all around us that our Lord is doing on our behalf.

Paul's prayer should become our prayer. We would be so greatly blessed if we would only be able to better see the ways in which God is working all around us giving us hope and assuring us of his loving care.

The Popsicle Cross

In Matthew 16:24 Jesus says to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Christians have often taken the bite out of this saying of Jesus by looking at it very passively. We erroneously believe that if God wants us to bear a cross He will give us one. Then we pray like crazy that God would give us a little cross that is easy to bear, something like crooked teeth or having to drive an old Chevy.

But there is really only one cross and that is the same one that Christ was nailed to. He also needed help carrying his cross and thanks to Simon, the guy from Cyrene, he got it. If we think that we have been able to sneak through life with a Popsicle stick cross, it is time to find the cross of Christ and begin to hoist it. What I mean is that we must find the suffering, the oppressed, the depressed, and those that really need help and begin to lift the heavy burden that they have been bearing. This will probably mean getting out of our comfortable existence to enter into their uncomfortable one. But this is exactly what Jesus is asking us to do. Paul reiterates this when he says to the Galatians, “Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” They never said it was going to be easy.

Bearing the real cross of Christ is a very powerful thing for us to do. I have seen people take the sick and suffering into their homes and watched as they shared the burden with each other. I love to see people “adopt” a disabled person and become that person’s family. These are powerful things that would re-image the entire church of Christ if we could just get more and more people to imitate him.

What do you think? Should Christians do more to actively bear the cross of Christ?